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A world cup without Spain, France, England? How Uefa revolt could sink the $20 billion-Fifa plan that Infantino wants
A $4.2-billion pitch, a Jared Kushner-backed investor and a September deadline — the plan that has united world football against the Fifa president.
Uefa and its 55 member associations voted unanimously on Thursday to boycott every Fifa tournament if the world governing body goes ahead with a plan to sell a stake in the world cup and its other competitions to private investors – a decision that threatens to sink the proposal and trigger another crisis for Fifa president Gianni Infantino.
The vote, taken after an emergency online meeting, came after a cascade of responses to the proposal unveiled on Tuesday that would spin off Fifa's commercial and tournament operations into a $20-billion subsidiary called Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE).
Hours later, the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) and its 41 members also rejected the plan, though they stopped short of threatening a boycott. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) issued a stinging letter, and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has told its executive committee to review the proposal next week.
"No Uefa national teams will participate in any Fifa competition for so long as these proposals remain alive," Uefa said, adding that the World Cup "cannot be treated as an investment product... The world cup is not for sale".
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What a European walkout would cost Fifa
A Uefa boycott would hollow out the sporting and commercial value of virtually every tournament Fifa organises. Six of the top 10 ranked teams in men's and women's football are from Europe, and six of the eight quarter-finalists at the 2026 World Cup came from Uefa nations. Reigning men's world champions Spain, along with France and England, are all Uefa members. Spain and Portugal are also co-hosts, with Morocco, of the 2030 men's World Cup.
The next Fifa event is only weeks away — the women's under-20 world cup, which begins in Poland on September 5.
Adding to it, four British federations are Fifa's only bidder to stage the 2035 women's World Cup, and a decision is due on November 23.
The 2027 senior women's world cup in Brazil would also lose most of its marquee sides if European teams stay away.
Uefa's own club competitions, led by the Champions League, brought in €4.4 billion ($5 billion) in the 2024-25 season, Reuters reported — a measure of how central Europe is to the game's economics.
Roger Bennett, chief executive and founder of the Men in Blazers Media Network, told Reuters that Fifa appeared to have "miscalculated and been blindsided by the leverage that Uefa has in the 55 nations". He said the miscalculation was "an astonishing thing to witness".
A global backlash
The rebellion has spread well beyond Europe. Concacaf, which includes the 2026 World Cup co-hosts US, Mexico and Canada, said its members had "expressed deep concerns about the lack of due process surrounding the proposal, the artificially short deadline imposed, and the absence of any review or approval by the relevant Fifa governance bodies". US and Canada football associations both said they stood with the confederation.
AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa — a long-time Infantino ally who lost the 2016 Fifa presidential election to him — also told the Asian body's 46 members that Fifa's "unilateral actions appear to undermine the very foundations of continental football", Reuters reported. Global players' union FIFPRO warned that the plan would irreversibly reshape the incentives underpinning the tournaments in which players work and build careers.
The English FA said it stood "shoulder to shoulder" with Uefa. Norwegian FA president Lise Klaveness said her federation could not accept "a process where a project that changes the very core of our shared model is developed in secret".
Alexander Wehrle, chairman of the supervisory board of the German FA's economic and digital subsidiary and chief executive of VfB Stuttgart, told Reuters "a line has once again been crossed" and asked whether Infantino had "ever actually stood in the supporters' section".
British culture secretary Lisa Nandy said football belonged "to the fans, not billionaire investors", and EU sport and culture commissioner Glenn Micallef backed Uefa on X.
The world cup that was: An HT immersive
What Infantino has proposed
Under the plan, Fifa would move media rights, sponsorship, licensing and commercial operations for its tournaments into FFE. The vehicle would be valued at about $20 billion, with Fifa raising up to $4.2 billion by selling a minority stake to outside investors.
Fifa has said it will keep sole control through majority board representation.
If members approve, each of Fifa's 211 associations would receive a one-off payment of $20 million in early 2027 and see their allocation for the 2027-2030 cycle rise from $8 million to $20 million, AFP reported.
Infantino has projected total funding through 2038 of $86 million per member, against about $36 million under the current model, according to the Associated Press. The deadline for members to decide is September 19.
Fifa cites for-profit spin-offs by the PGA Tour, Formula One and Spain's La Liga as precedent.
The Kushner connection
The plan traces to secret discussions last year between Infantino and Joshua Kushner, the venture capitalist and brother of Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Bloomberg reported. Fifa brought in JPMorgan Chase in early 2026 to package the rights and pitch investors. Kushner's new holding company, Thrive Eternal — which has already invested in Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants — is expected to lead the investor group as cornerstone backer.
The link has drawn political fire in Washington. Representative Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, wrote to Infantino on July 26 demanding documents on any dealings between Fifa and Trump, his family or the Trump Organization, Bloomberg reported, and said the plan suggested corruption.
Infantino's record, and his defence
The Swiss administrator, who was Uefa's general secretary before he won the Fifa presidency in 2016, is not a stranger to European pushback. His attempt in 2021 to hold the world cup every two years was shelved after Uefa threatened a similar boycott.
Late last year he created the Fifa Peace Prize and awarded it to Trump. He later attended the US President's inaugural Board of Peace, a body established to oversee Gaza's governance.
Then, just ahead of the world cup final in New Jersey on July 19, Fifa paused a red-card match suspension against US forward Folarin Balogun after Trump urged Infantino to reconsider action against the player. Critics said the decision flowed directly from Infantino's courtship of the White House.
In a video message on Wednesday, before Uefa's vote, Infantino described the proposal as "a golden opportunity to turbocharge the development of the game globally", insisting it was "an opportunity but not an obligation" that would still need approval from the 211 members and the Fifa council.
Infantino faces re-election in March 2027 in Rabat, with nominations closing on November 18. He had appeared certain to run unopposed for a fourth term, backed by more than 200 members, according to The Guardian. European officials are now reported to be scouting a challenger, with Nasser Al-Khelaifi, chairman of Qatar Sports Investments, the majority owner of Paris Saint-Germain, mentioned as a possible name.
