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Barely after the World Cup concluded, FIFA announced on Tuesday its intention to create a company to manage its commercial activities and attract external investors, with the promise of a $10 billion windfall to fund the development of soccer.
"FIFA's administration is exploring the idea of consolidating all commercial rights—covering broadcasting, sponsorship, ticketing, and licensing—along with the operational implementation of its tournaments through the creation of the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE)," the governing body of world soccer specified in a statement.
"FIFA will invite third parties to make minority investments, without controlling power," within this company, the statement added.
According to several press reports, this external stake would initially rise to around 20%.
"FIFA would maintain exclusive control of the FFE through a majority representation on the board of directors," the text specifies, as well as "exclusive authority" over soccer governance, competitions, the calendar, or regulatory decisions.
As a non-profit association, FIFA retains a portion of its revenue, particularly to organize its competitions and pay its employees—including the president, Gianni Infantino, who earns several million dollars a year—and allocates the rest to development programs, which it claims will be boosted thanks to the creation of this FFE.
- "Liberar el potencial comercial" -
The FFE "would obtain $4.2 billion" as early as this year, and "all its net profits will be reinvested in soccer," assures FIFA, which promises its members economic benefits through a new funding mechanism, the FIFA Fast Forward Programme (FFFP).
By integrating all existing funding programs, FIFA hopes to raise a total exceeding $10 billion over the next four years to finance the development of soccer.
In its current state, FIFA had planned to distribute around $2.7 billion to its member federations during the 2027-2030 period.
This FIFA announcement aligns with Infantino’s desire to "unlock the commercial potential" of FIFA, as he stated on the eve of the opening of a massive World Cup in North America, with a format of 48 teams (compared to the previous 32) and 104 matches.
- La UEFA se opone -
To carry out this project, which still needs to be approved by the FIFA Council, the organization explains that it is working with the investment bank J.P. Morgan and the investment fund Thrive Eternal (founded by Joshua Kushner, brother of Jared, son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump), which "should lead the group of potential investors for the FFE."
President of FIFA since 2016, Infantino is a candidate for re-election for a new four-year term in 2027, for which he is positioned as the favorite, although he faces opposition from some European federations, as well as UEFA.
Often critical of FIFA's decisions, UEFA, which groups together the European federations, was quick to react to this initiative.
"The soul and governance of soccer are not assets to be speculated with, especially without transparency regarding the destination of financial profits. None of us owns soccer. It is not FIFA's job to sell it," it wrote in a statement.
"The close relationship between the FIFA president and the US president has taken on a financial dimension that causes serious harm to soccer. No one has the right to sell our sport," opined Sepp Blatter, Infantino's predecessor at the helm of FIFA (1998-2015), in a message posted on X.
Negative reactions have also reached the political sphere: Andy Burnham, the new British Prime Minister, believes that "soccer does not belong to investors," but to those who "fill the stands and stand on the sidelines week after week, rain or shine."
"The World Cup," he adds on X, "is not a product. It is the greatest competition in world sport and has never belonged to anyone to be sold," he insists.
[Publicidad]