Gianni Infantino withdrew his plan to sell private investors a stake in the World Cup on Friday, ending a revolt that ran from Europe to Asia and, by the end, into his own building.
The proposal was to raise about $4.2 billion by selling roughly 20 percent of a new unit that would hold FIFA's events, the World Cup included, valuing that unit at $20 billion, Al Jazeera reported. Joshua Kushner, the founder of Thrive Capital, was expected to lead the investor group through a fund called Thrive Eternal.
Infantino's statement withdrawing it did not concede the argument. "Having listened carefully to all the views, it has become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place," he said, adding that the proposal would not proceed. The reasoning offered is that the fight was too costly, not that the plan was wrong.
What the confederations said
UEFA, which governs European football, voted to boycott FIFA competitions. Its objection was as much about process as substance: European officials called it "irresponsible and indefensible that a proposal of such significance for football was conceived in secret," and accused FIFA of putting the game's "soul" up for sale.
The Asian Football Confederation called the plans unacceptable and went further institutionally, recommending that FIFA undertake "an urgent review of its governance and decision-making framework." That is a confederation asking for the president's decision-making process itself to be examined, which is a different order of complaint than opposing one transaction.
The dissent inside FIFA
Two figures broke publicly with Infantino.
Carlos Cordeiro, his senior adviser and a former president of U.S. Soccer, resigned immediately, calling the proposal "a bad deal for football." Kevin Lamour, FIFA's chief operating officer, said staff had been deceived and described the plan as "a project of one person."
Internal dissent of that kind is rare at FIFA, and it is the part of this episode most likely to matter beyond the transaction. An adviser resigning is a political event; a chief operating officer saying the organization's own employees were misled is a governance one.
Why it lands here
The 2026 World Cup is being played across North America, with matches in the Los Angeles area at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. A fight over who owns the commercial rights to the tournament is not an abstraction for a host city in the middle of hosting it.
What comes next
Infantino stands for re-election on March 18, 2027, in Morocco. Al Jazeera reported that Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa and Victor Montagliani, the CONCACAF president, are among the names being discussed as potential challengers.
That is the real cost of the past eleven days. Infantino has won FIFA elections without meaningful opposition before. He now goes into one having united Europe, Asia and North America against a single proposal, and having lost it.
