07/29/26 06:03:00
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07/29 05:59 CDT FIFA's Infantino sets deadline for $20M offer to members in
Kushner-backed World Cup investor plan
FIFA's Infantino sets deadline for $20M offer to members in Kushner-backed
World Cup investor plan
By GRAHAM DUNBAR
AP Sports Writer
GENEVA (AP) --- FIFA President Gianni Infantino set a Sept. 19 deadline on
Wednesday for the 211 member federations to accept a one-off $20 million offer
to each underwritten by the investment firm of Jared Kushner's brother as part
of a project to sell stakes in the World Cup.
Infantino set out the "singular and unique funding opportunity" in a letter
detailing why he wants to create a $20 billion FIFA subsidiary --- 20% owned by
private investors --- that would run the soccer body's competitions and events
like World Cups and Club World Cups.
"It is my duty and responsibility as FIFA president to present such
game-changing opportunities to you, our members," Infantino wrote in the letter
seen by The Associated Press.
The proposal revealed Tuesday and backed by Joshua Kushner's investment firm
Thrive Capital was met with immediate fury by Infantino's former colleagues at
European soccer body UEFA, which said the World Cup "is not FIFA's to sell."
UEFA is expected to call its 55 member federations to an emergency online
meeting, likely on Thursday.
Joshua Kushner's brother Jared Kushner is a son-in-law of U.S. President Donald
Trump.
FIFA's private equity plan is the latest ambitious project proposed during
Infantino's 11-year presidency in which he has increasingly seemed to be an
executive leader acting without consulting with soccer's major stakeholders.
Previous plans include creating a FIFA Peace Prize and trying to reorganize
soccer's calendar with World Cups every two years instead of four.
Concerns about the previously secret plan were aired Wednesday by the
continental soccer bodies for Asia and the North American region known as
CONCACAF.
"We are deeply concerned by the lack of due process," CONCACAF said in a
statement.
The Kuala Lumpur-based Asian Football Confederation said it was "disappointed
that a matter of such significance entered the public domain before the AFC
family had been afforded the opportunity to examine and discuss it."
Continental bodies that organize their own international club and national-team
competitions --- such as the Champions League, European Championship and Copa
America --- likely will see threats to those events from FIFA wanting to
increase revenue and value for investors by playing World Cups and Club World
Cups for men and women more often.
If the FIFA Forward Enterprise subsidiary is approved by a majority of the 211
members, they also each are promised $20 million in funding from the four-year
commercial cycle tied to the men's 2030 World Cup.
That would lead, Infantinto wrote, to "a pool of diverse international
investors" joining Joshua Kushner's Thrive as the anchor investor: "This
process will be led by J.P. Morgan."
If Infantino's plan is rejected, those members will get their previously
promised $10 million over the next four years, his letter stated.
Resistance in Britain
FIFA's plan met quick opposition from British Prime Minister Andy Burnham,
whose government is preparing to support hosting the 2035 Women's World Cup in
England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. FIFA is set to confirm that lone bid for
2035 at an online meeting in November.
"Football does not belong to investors," Burnham, a longtime soccer fan, said
in a video message on Instagram. "Once you have sold a piece of (the World
Cup), you have sold out. Football belongs to the fans. It always has, and it
always will."
Resistance by British lawmakers --- including threats of legislation by
then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2021 --- previously helped stop the
divisive European Super League project that was an existential threat to UEFA's
Champions League, and which Infantino had discreetly supported.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and AP World Cup coverage
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