Infantino Was Set to Coast to Re-Election, Now He’s Fighting for His Political Future
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has officially scrapped a controversial plan to sell private stakes in the organization’s World Cup business, following an unprecedented global revolt from football’s governing bodies. But the bigger story may not be the plan itself, it’s what this episode has done to Infantino’s previously secure path to a fourth term as FIFA president this March.
What Infantino Actually Proposed
Announced Tuesday, Infantino’s plan called for creating a new subsidiary, FIFA Forward Enterprise, that would control the commercial and operational rights to major FIFA events, including the men’s and women’s World Cups. FIFA planned to sell roughly a 21 percent stake in the new entity, valued at 20 billion dollars, to outside investors, while offering all 211 member associations 40 million dollars each if they backed the proposal. The expected anchor investor was Thrive Eternal, a fund led by Joshua Kushner, the younger brother of Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law. According to reporting from the New York Times, the Trump administration was reportedly aware of the plan before it became public, though Trump himself said Friday he had not personally discussed the proposal with Infantino.
How Quickly the Opposition Mobilized
The backlash was immediate and coordinated. UEFA, representing 55 European football associations including Spain, France, England and Germany, voted unanimously to boycott all FIFA competitions if the plan proceeded, declaring the World Cup is not for sale. Concacaf, which co-hosted this summer’s World Cup, said its members rejected the proposal outright, with sources indicating most of its associations were losing or had already lost faith in Infantino. The Asian Football Confederation then declared solidarity with both UEFA and Concacaf. Combined, those three confederations alone represented at least 136 votes against the plan, well past the 106 votes Infantino would have needed to pass it, even before Africa’s CAF or South America’s Conmebol had formally weighed in.
The Resignation That Signaled Real Trouble
Perhaps the clearest sign of how serious this crisis became was the resignation of Carlos Cordeiro, Infantino’s senior adviser on global strategy and governance and FIFA’s own White House representative for the World Cup. Cordeiro didn’t just quietly step down, he issued a public statement condemning the plan directly, saying he could not stand by while FIFA considered selling a stake in the World Cup, calling it a bad deal for football that would mortgage the sport’s future. FIFA’s own chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, went further, stating that FIFA’s administration itself had been deceived about the project.
A Pattern, Not an Isolated Incident
This controversy is reportedly at least the third time Infantino has rattled global football with an ambitious, secretive plan many in the sport viewed as reckless. In 2018, he pushed a similarly opaque 25 billion dollar offer from Japan’s SoftBank to create new competitions that continental federations saw as a long-term threat to existing tournaments. What made this episode different is that it marked the first time UEFA moved quickly and decisively to build momentum toward potentially removing Infantino altogether, a level of institutional pushback the earlier controversy never reached.
What This Means for March
Infantino, 56, had been widely expected to coast unopposed to a fourth term at FIFA’s Congress in March, buoyed by hosting what FIFA itself touted as the most successful sports mega event in history, generating 15 billion dollars in revenue. Victor Matheson, a sports business expert at the College of the Holy Cross, described the shift bluntly, saying it’s hard to think of a situation where someone’s political fortunes changed so rapidly, from sitting on top of the world two weeks ago to fighting for his political life now. UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has already publicly called Infantino the wrong man to lead FIFA, and AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa welcomed the plan’s withdrawal while pointedly stressing that football’s future must be shaped through proper consultation and collective dialogue.
The Real Question Going Forward
Infantino has framed the withdrawal as a reset, saying his intent is to bring all parties back together in the coming weeks. But with UEFA, Concacaf and the AFC all having publicly broken from him within the same week, and his own senior adviser resigning in protest, the scrapped investment plan looks less like a closed chapter and more like the opening move in a genuine leadership contest heading into March.
Sources:
· FIFA scraps controversial World Cup investment plan — BBC Sport: https://www.bbc.com/sport
· FIFA World Cup fallout, Infantino scraps private investment plan — Al Jazeera: https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/7/31/fifa-forced-to-scrap-world-cup-private-investment-plan-after-backlash
· FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s Future in Question as World Cup Investment Plan Scrapped — Mediaite: https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/fifa-president-gianni-infantinos-future-in-question-as-world-cup-investment-plan-scrapped/
· FIFA scraps controversial $20 billion World Cup investment plan — CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/31/sport/fifa-scraps-controversial-world-cup-investment-plan
