Premier League chief says FIFA has pressed self-destruct button over World Cup sell-off plan

FIFA president Gianni Infantino is fighting for his political survival after his secret plan to sell a minority stake in the World Cup and other tournaments to private investors provoked a furious backlash from the sport's most powerful bodies, forcing him to abandon the scheme. The crisis has left world football in a state of civil war, with European, Asian and North American confederations demanding his resignation and the Premier League's chief executive adding his voice to the criticism.

The plan and the backlash

Infantino proposed creating a new commercial subsidiary, FIFA Forward Enterprise, to manage the commercial rights for the World Cup, the Women's World Cup and the Club World Cup. He then sought to sell around 20% of that company to private investors, with a group led by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, reported to be the lead bidder. FIFA said the move would raise billions of pounds to invest in global football development, and offered each of its 211 member associations a £30 million incentive to back the plan by a 19 September deadline.

But the proposal was met with immediate condemnation. UEFA, European football's governing body, called an emergency meeting of its 55 members and declared that the World Cup is not for sale. It threatened to boycott all FIFA competitions if the plan went ahead, a stance quickly backed by the Football Association, the Scottish FA and other European federations. The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) also voiced strong opposition. Within days, three of FIFA's six confederations had publicly rejected the plan.

A rapid collapse

Infantino's senior advisor, Carlos Cordeiro, resigned, calling the proposal a bad deal for football that would mortgage the game's future. FIFA's chief operating officer, Kevin Lamore, accused Infantino of deceiving colleagues and treating them with contempt. Under mounting pressure, Infantino released a statement on Saturday saying he had listened to the views and that the project had created divisions. "As a result, this proposal will not proceed," he said.

But the climbdown failed to satisfy his critics. UEFA said it had lost confidence in Infantino's leadership and described the plan as a "shabby backroom opaque deal". The English and Welsh FAs officially withdrew their support for his re-election, and the European body threatened legal action. Three confederations later issued a joint open letter accusing Infantino of a "profound failure of judgment" and a "breach of trust".

Infantino fights back

Infantino has not stepped down. He called a crisis meeting of senior FIFA executives in Morocco, where he received the backing of his management board and issued an apology for the way the proposal was handled. He then travelled to Colombia to attend the inauguration of the country's new president, and has received public support from the African Football Confederation and from Donald Trump. The US president posted on Truth Social that replacing Infantino would be a "terrible mistake".

Meanwhile, fresh allegations emerged in the Daily Telegraph that UEFA paid a six-figure severance to a woman with whom Infantino was allegedly having an affair while he was UEFA's general secretary. Infantino strongly denies the claims, and FIFA has denounced what it calls a "concerted and ongoing effort to undermine" the organisation and its president. The organisation said it would challenge reporting it considers inaccurate or misleading.

Premier League chief speaks out

On the eve of the new Premier League season, chief executive Richard Masters told the BBC that FIFA had "pressed the self-destruct button" and that a new, unifying candidate was needed to lead the world game. He said the FA was right to withdraw its support for Infantino and that the plan to sell a stake in the World Cup was a bad idea. "It's a problem of FIFA's making, this is a self-inflicted wound," he said. Masters also expressed concern about further expansion of the World Cup, warning that it would erode the domestic calendar and put more strain on players.

With the deadline for potential challengers to Infantino's re-election bid set for 18 November, and the first UEFA boycott threat to be tested at the Women's Under-20 World Cup in September, the crisis shows no sign of abating.