FIFA wants to sell a $4 billion stake in the World Cup to private investors — including a firm tied to Jared Kushner's brother — and Europe's soccer establishment is howling about the "soul of the game" because it threatens their own revenue monopoly.
The real fight here isn't about protecting football from Wall Street. It's about who gets to cash the checks. FIFA President Gianni Infantino announced plans to create a $20 billion subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise, selling 20% to private investors, with Joshua Kushner's Thrive Capital as the backer, according to AP News. The subsidiary would control commercial rights, ticketing, and "operational delivery" of World Cups. In return, each of FIFA's 211 member federations would get a one-off $20 million payout.
UEFA responded with fury, declaring the World Cup "is not FIFA's to sell." The Guardian ran an editorial calling it a "red-card offence" and warning of "predation by private capital" — conveniently glossing over the fact that UEFA itself runs the Champions League, one of the most lucrative sporting properties on the planet, through a joint venture with the European Club Association.
The Guardian framed the entire episode as a morality tale about Infantino "dragging the world's favourite sport further and further away from its roots." What the Guardian buried: the commercial self-interest driving UEFA's opposition. Continental bodies that organize their own tournaments — the European Championship, the Copa America — stand to lose the most if FIFA expands World Cups and Club World Cups to satisfy investor demand for more inventory. AP News reported that UEFA is even considering a boycott threat, the same tactic used to kill Infantino's 2021 bid to hold the World Cup every two years.
Meanwhile, non-European federations see the deal differently. The Czech Football Association's president, David Trunda, broke ranks to back the plan, telling Sky News he could see "the pragmatic benefits" and "positive impact" for development. Yardbarker reported that FIFA's non-European members are "practically drooling" over the payouts — because for smaller nations, $20 million is transformational.
CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation both expressed concerns about process, not principle. CONCACAF said it was "deeply concerned by the lack of due process." The AFC said it was "disappointed" the matter went public before they could examine it. Those are procedural objections, not the existential wailing coming from Zurich.
The Kushner connection is real and worth watching. Infantino has made a pattern of courting Trump's orbit — creating a FIFA Peace Prize awarded to Trump in December, and allowing White House interference in a refereeing dispute, as The Guardian itself noted. A 12-year ownership deal with Thrive Capital would lock in that alignment. Follow the money: whoever controls FIFA's commercial rights controls billions in global sports revenue for a generation.
But spare us the sermon from UEFA and its press enablers. European soccer isn't some pastoral village game — it's a multibillion-dollar entertainment conglomerate that fought its own Super League revolt in 2021. The question isn't whether the World Cup gets monetized. It already is. The question is who gets the cut — and whether the American press will keep laundering European commercial interests as moral crusades.
