FIFA President Gianni Infantino has set a Sept. 19 deadline for the organization's 211 member federations to accept a one-off $20 million offer each. The funding is part of a proposal to create a $20 billion FIFA subsidiary, 20 percent of which would be owned by private investors, to manage competitions and events.
The offer is underwritten by Thrive Capital, the investment firm of Joshua Kushner. If the plan for the subsidiary is approved, members are promised the $20 million in funding from the four-year commercial cycle tied to the 2030 World Cup. If the plan is rejected, members will receive $10 million over the next four years.
Infantino wrote that a pool of diverse international investors would join Thrive as an anchor investor, with the process led by J.P. Morgan. Politico reported that Joshua Kushner will approach sovereign wealth funds to build a globally diversified investment base for the FIFA subsidiary. The controversial plans to sell a stake in FIFA's media division started in secret talks last year between Infantino and venture capitalist Joshua Kushner.
Federations express concern
Regional bodies have reacted negatively to the proposal. UEFA stated that the World Cup is not FIFA’s to sell. The European body is expected to call an emergency online meeting of its 55 member federations, likely on Thursday.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) 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. Some critics argue that even a 20 percent minority stake in the FIFA subsidiary would effectively be a controlling stake if Infantino remains in charge without accountability. The FIFA private equity plan is the latest ambitious project during Infantino’s 11-year presidency.
Political and legal scrutiny
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said football does not belong to investors and that once you have sold a piece of the World Cup, you have sold out. Resistance by British lawmakers previously helped stop the European Super League project. In the United States, Representative Jamie Raskin, ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told Politico that FIFA was going directly into business with the Trump family.
Raskin has summoned Gianni Infantino to attend the House Judiciary Committee and requested FIFA documents related to gifts and benefits provided to Trump and visitor logs for FIFA's office space in Trump Tower. Joshua Kushner’s brother Jared Kushner is a son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump. Charles Kushner, father of Jared and Joshua, was convicted of tax evasion, witness tampering, and illegal campaign contributions, sentenced to two years in prison, and later pardoned by Trump in 2020.
Charles Kushner is the US ambassador to France, despite speaking no French. Jared Kushner, married to Ivanka Trump, is a Special Envoy for Peace and helped negotiate the Islamabad Memorandum ceasefire with Iran, which has since collapsed. He was also tasked with fulfilling Trump's pledge to end the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours of assuming the presidency. Jared Kushner divested his shares in Thrive Capital in 2017 when taking a role in Trump's first administration.
Saudi connections and past deals
Jared Kushner secured £2 billion in funding for his own investment vehicle, Affinity Fund Management, from the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) after the first Trump term. The New York Times reported that PIF advisers raised objections about the Affinity Fund deal due to the inexperience of its management and that Saudi Arabia bore the bulk of the investment and risk, but the PIF board overruled those warnings.
Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup, driven by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Saudi Public Investment Fund owns Newcastle United and Aramco, which is 81 percent owned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and is FIFA's newest World Cup sponsor with deals reportedly worth around $100 million a year. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was implicated in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi; the United Nations concluded the state of Saudi Arabia was responsible, and a US intelligence report concluded that Prince Mohammed approved an operation to capture or kill Khashoggi; the Saudi government rejected both reports as inaccurate.
The US agreed a landmark deal to cooperate with Saudi Arabia to develop civilian nuclear power, and the two nations coordinated airstrikes on Iran-backed militias in Iraq this week. Trump boasted that his direct line to Infantino persuaded FIFA to suspend USA's Folarin Balogun's red card for the World Cup last-16 game against Belgium, which the USA lost 4-1.