Fifa and its president, Gianni Infantino, face a growing wave of criticism over the proposal to create Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE), a new subsidiary intended to manage and market the organization’s main tournaments, including the World Cupwith the possibility of incorporating private investment.
The governing body of world football confirmed that it seeks to expand financing for the development of this sport to more than 10 billion dollars among its 211 member associations through this new model. However, the initiative has generated concern in various confederations, national federations, clubs and leaders due to the lack of information and transparency around the project.
UEFA was the first to express its rejection of the proposal. The body chaired by Aleksander Ceferin assured that an attempt is made to cross a line that “should never be crossed” and recalled that football does not belong to any person or institution to be sold.. The European confederation considers that the project could put strategic assets of international football at risk.
The criticism was supported by Concacaf, which claimed to have learned of the initiative only through the media and, subsequently, through an official statement from Fifa. Along the same lines, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) pointed out that a decision of this magnitude must be based on principles of good governance, transparency and broad consultations with the actors involved.
The English Federation (FA) also expressed its concern and assured that it has not received detailed information about the proposal. The organization questioned the lack of clarity regarding the conditions, scope and impact that the incorporation of private investors in Fifa’s most important events would have.
According to information published by the British newspaper The TimesInfantino would have given a period of 53 days to the member associations to decide whether to support the project.
The report indicates that each federation would receive up to $53 million in additional funds if the initiative is approved, while those who reject it would receive significantly fewer resources. Sources close to the negotiations, cited by the media, described this situation as an attempt to put pressure on the associations.
The project contemplates that, if approved, each of the 211 federations will receive 20 million dollars in extraordinary financing for special projects through the new Fifa Fast-Forward program, in addition to another 20 million from the FIFA Forward program for the period 2027-2030, a figure considerably higher than what is currently budgeted.
Reactions also came from different sectors of European football. The European Football Clubs (EFC), which represents more than 850 clubs, expressed its “serious concern” about a proposal that, it claims, was not previously consulted with the actors involved. For its part, the Union of European Clubs (UEC) recalled that the World Cup is a sporting institution built over generations and not just another commercial asset.
The controversy also revives the memory of a similar initiative presented by Infantino in 2018 together with the Japanese fund SoftBank and a group of Asian and Middle Eastern investors, a project that was finally discarded after opposition from Uefa and the main European leagues.
Faced with growing discontent, federations belonging to Uefa called emergency meetings to analyze the scope of the proposal and establish a joint position regarding one of the most ambitious and controversial projects promoted by Fifa in recent years.