European boycott pledge leaves Fifa's investment plan on brink of collapse

Fifa’s plans to sell off stakes in a World Cup company to private investors appear in tatters after European nations pledged to boycott all its competitions until the project is scrapped.

Uefa reacted furiously when the plans to create Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) first emerged in media reports in The Times and the Financial Times on Tuesday.

Less than 48 hours later, Uefa’s 55 member associations insisted they would not participate in any Fifa tournament until the plan was withdrawn, with the battle lines between the European and global governing bodies now firmly drawn.

Fifa president Gianni Infantino has publicly backed the plan, with an investor group led by Thrive Eternal, founded by Joshua Kushner – the brother of United States President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner – waiting in the wings to secure a minority stake in the new venture.

However, promises of huge returns to national associations if FFE goes ahead could surely not be honoured if the men’s and women’s World Cups took place without European involvement, even if Infantino could still muster majority support for FFE.

European and world leagues are also opposed to the plans – fearing that commercial imperatives will drive Fifa to hold bigger and more frequent tournaments in the future, eating even further into domestic schedules.

Uefa’s opposition to the plan, in its words, is “unanimous and unequivocal”.

“No Uefa national teams will participate in any Fifa competition for so long as these proposals remain alive, unless this proposal has been abandoned in its entirety and binding assurances have been given that Fifa will never again open its governance or competitions to private ownership,” European football’s governing body stated.

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