UEFA Loses Confidence in Infantino After Failed $20B World Cup Privatization Plan

Gianni Infantino's plan to hand over the World Cup to private investors collapsed in a week that may have ended his decade at the helm of FIFA. The proposal was audacious: spin off FIFA's commercial operations—the men's and women's World Cups, the Club World Cups—into a $20 billion subsidiary, with private investors owning a fifth of it. The anchor investor was a New York firm backed by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Jared Kushner, who sits close to the U.S. presidency. Infantino announced it on a Tuesday. By Saturday, it was dead.

The speed of the collapse was stunning. UEFA, European soccer's governing body, moved first. Its 55 member nations agreed Thursday to boycott the World Cup and all other FIFA competitions if the plan went forward. Asia's soccer confederation and North America's CONCACAF followed suit. But the real blow came from inside. Carlos Cordeiro, Infantino's senior adviser and a former Goldman Sachs banker who represented FIFA on the White House Task Force, resigned Friday and urged other senior staff to speak out. Hours later, Kevin Lamour, FIFA's chief operating officer and a longtime colleague of Infantino, issued a statement saying the staff had been deceived. "It is the project of one person," Lamour wrote to the Associated Press. "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."

UEFA's response was withering. The European body issued a statement hours after FIFA withdrew the plan, calling out what it saw as a pattern of secrecy and manipulation. "We cannot keep going on like this with secret schemes on fast-track timescales, cooked up by faceless individuals and of dubious benefit to the game," UEFA said. It promised to work with other confederations to ensure such a thing could not happen again. More pointedly, UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin signaled that the current FIFA leadership had lost the confidence not just of Europe but of much of the global soccer family.

This was not Infantino's first swing at reshaping world soccer in his own image. In 2018, he had pushed a secretive $25 billion offer from Japan's SoftBank to create new competitions—a move that threatened the traditional continental club and national team events that form the backbone of the sport. In 2021, he proposed playing World Cups every two years instead of four, an idea that angered even the International Olympic Committee, where he holds an elected seat. Both plans created deep rifts and were eventually abandoned. Both times, Infantino survived. He was re-elected unopposed in 2019 and again in 2023.

This time feels different. The failed spinoff venture appeared designed to create a commissioner-like role for Infantino beyond 2031, one that would likely pay far more than his current salary plus bonus package of over $6 million annually. But the unified opposition from every major confederation, combined with the public mutiny of his own staff, has created an opening that did not exist before. The next FIFA presidential election is set for March 2027 in Rabat, Morocco. Candidates have until November 18 to enter the race—exactly four months away. FIFA statutes allow Infantino one more four-year term. What was once unthinkable—a contested election, a real challenge to his leadership—now seems possible. To win, a candidate would need 106 votes. Europe's 55 members, Asia's 46, and North America's 35 would form a formidable base, though continental blocs do not always vote as one. For the first time in a decade, Infantino faces the prospect of having to fight for his job.