Gianni Infantino's FIFA Plans Collapse Amid Backlash

Gianni Infantino started the week trying to sell a slice of FIFA’s future. He ended it fighting for his own.

Late on Friday night, under intense fire from across the football map and from within his own inner circle, the FIFA president abandoned his flagship plan to sell a minority stake in a new commercial arm of the organisation. The climbdown was total.

“Having listened carefully to all the views, it has become clear that the project has created divisions… that are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place,” Infantino said in a statement. “Our purpose has always been — and will always be — to unite and improve. As a result, this proposal will not proceed.”

The deal is dead. The damage is not.

A plan built on billions – and backlash

FIFA had unveiled its vision on Tuesday: a new private entity, FIFA Forward Enterprises (FFE), would take control of its main events, including the men’s and women’s World Cups and the Club World Cup. A 21 per cent minority stake in FFE would be sold to outside investors, a move that, according to FIFA, could raise $4.2 billion.

The money was already earmarked. Through a new mechanism branded the FIFA Fast-Forward Programme (FFFP), the governing body said it could push its development funding beyond $10 billion over the next four years, funnelling unprecedented sums into its 211 member associations.

The offer sheets were detailed, and they were aggressive. Associations that opposed the FFE plan but saw it pass were still promised $20 million each in the 2027-30 cycle, rising to $22 million in 2031-34 and $24 million in 2035-38, regardless of whether any stake was sold. Those that backed the proposal would double that first tranche to $40 million in 2027-30, with the later payments identical.

It was a financial carrot on a historic scale. It also detonated a political bomb.

UEFA led the resistance. The European confederation, representing all 55 of its member associations, warned that if the plans stayed on the table, it would boycott FIFA competitions – World Cups included. Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) then aligned with UEFA, forming a powerful bloc against Zurich.

Between them, the three confederations speak for 137 of FIFA’s 211 members. Enough to turn a lucrative project into a live threat to Infantino’s authority.

From defiance to retreat in a single day

FIFA’s first instinct was to stand firm. Early on Friday morning in Europe, it issued a statement insisting “nobody is selling football” and stressing that it “acknowledges and respects feedback and concern aired in public” while reaffirming its commitment to what it called an “open and democratic consultation”.

The message was clear: we hear you, but we’re moving ahead.

The mood shifted within hours.

The AFC, which had initially kept its powder drier than UEFA, then declared it stood in solidarity with UEFA and Concacaf. That solidarity mattered. Once Asia moved, Infantino’s numbers looked fragile. The president, who needed a majority of member associations and the backing of the 37-strong FIFA Council to advance the proposal, suddenly found himself staring at the prospect of being outvoted on his signature reform.

Then the opposition moved from the outside to the inside.

First came Carlos Cordeiro, Infantino’s adviser, who resigned and tore into the proposal in his parting statement, calling it “a bad deal for FIFA’s Member Associations, a bad deal for football, and a bad deal for the long-term future of the game.”

Next, FIFA’s chief operating officer Kevin Lamour went public. Speaking to The Associated Press, he said staff had been “deceived” by Infantino. He added that he would sleep better having spoken out, even if it cost him his job.

“It is the project of one person,” Lamour said. “Not only must this project not go ahead… but the time has now come for football political leaders to ask themselves the right questions and make the right decisions.”

When a president loses the room, that’s one thing. When his lieutenants start lighting torches, it’s another.

Joshua Kushner’s venture capital firm Thrive, the targeted outside investor, had not withdrawn as of Friday night. In the end, it did not need to. FIFA’s own leadership pulled the plug.

South America’s confederation, CONMEBOL, had tried to tread a careful line, issuing a statement that stopped short of outright rejection but reminded Zurich that financial and commercial decisions “must always serve the interests of football and never take precedence over its essence.”

By the time FIFA’s late-night statement arrived, there was nothing left to finesse. The entire project was off the table.

The Infantino era jolts

For Infantino, this week was supposed to be a victory lap. He came into it as the president who presided over $15 billion in revenue from the men’s World Cup this summer and as the overwhelming favourite to stand unopposed in the March 2027 election. Many federations had already filed formal letters of support.

Instead, he has suffered the most public and coordinated rebuke of his presidency.

UEFA’s boycott threat was heavy enough. Once Concacaf and the AFC joined the revolt, the prospect of a historic split in world football stopped being a distant talking point and became a live scenario. The internal resignations and public criticism turned what had been framed as a commercial debate into a question of leadership and trust.

Lise Klaveness, president of the Norwegian Football Federation, captured the mood in Europe when she spoke to VG.

“My clear impression at the moment is that he has lost a great deal of trust,” she said. “We didn’t vote for him last time, and we’ve been sceptical about this. There are many good things about FIFA, but if you take a lax approach to governance principles and rules, you quickly lose trust.”

Inside UEFA and Concacaf meetings on Thursday, The Athletic reported that Infantino’s future was openly discussed. The idea of him gliding to another uncontested term no longer feels inevitable.

This week, a battle over ideas – who controls football’s commercial future, and on what terms – morphed into a battle for survival. Infantino chose to save the latter by sacrificing the former.

The vultures, though, have already taken flight. Nominations for the 2027 FIFA presidential election must be submitted by November. For the first time in years, the race for the top job in world football looks like exactly that: a race.