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FIFA doubles down on investor plan after UEFA boycott threat
Despite the pushback from football confederations in Europe, Asia and North America, FIFA pledged to pursue its controversial investor plans. "Nobody is selling football," the body insists.
https://p.dw.com/p/5Hzrw Advertisement World football's governing body, FIFA, doubled down on its private investment plans on Friday, despite fierce opposition from regional confederations including a threat of a boycott from European governing body UEFA.
"Nobody is selling football. This is not something FIFA would ever entertain," FIFA said in statement, slamming "incorrect media reports" and insisting that the preparations would continue.
"We will proceed with this consultation process to ensure that each MA [Member Association] has the ability to express its vote based on facts," read the statement.
"Everyone has the right to express their opposition and to seek further clarification but no single entity can claim to represent all 211 MAs around the world. Each MA should be allowed to review the proposal and have a say in shaping their own future. These are the democratic principles of FIFA."
On Thursday, European football's governing body, UEFA, had voted unanimously to boycott FIFA competitions if the world governing body proceeds with plans to create a new commercial subsidiary valued at $20 billion (roughly €17.5 billion) and sell a non-controlling minority stake in it to investors .
The subsidiary, "FIFA Forward Enterprise" (FFE) would be responsible for FIFA's commercial rights like broadcast, sponsorship, ticketing and licensing contracts for its competitions, including the World Cup .
The proposed investor consortium is expected to be led by "Thrive Eternal," a fund run by "Thrive Capital," founded by Joshua Kushner, the brother US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino would require 106 of FIFA's 211 member associations to give him a majority mandate to pursue the plans, but opposition has come swiftly.
"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," UEFA said in a statement after a unanimous vote by its 55 member associations.
"The World Cup cannot be treated as an investment product ... No part of it should ever be surrendered to private investors. The World Cup is not for sale," the statement added.
Shortly after, North America's soccer body CONCACAF also unanimously rejected the FIFA plan, though it stopped short of threatening a boycott by its 41 members.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) also issued a scathing letter to its 47 member associations and warned the FIFA proposal would never succeed without the support of all six regional blocs.
African body CAF said it would convene an executive committee meeting next week to look into the proposal, saying in a statement:
"CAF is committed to continue consulting and working together with its Member Associations, FIFA, other Football Confederations and stakeholders in support of increasing financial and other resources for the development and growth of football in Africa and worldwide," it said.
UEFA, which had criticized FIFA and Infantino during the recent World Cup over expensive ticket prices and the Folarin Balogun red card affair , had come out publicly in opposition to the plan within an hour of it first being reported by the Financial Times and Times on Tuesday.
Shortly after the newspaper reports, FIFA, the sport's global governing body, issued a statement confirming the plan.
In a later statement, it gave FIFA's 211 member associations until September 19 to express their written support for the scheme. The proposal requires a simple majority and approval from the FIFA Council to pass.
Even before Thursday's meeting, UEFA had doubled down on its criticism after learning of the deadline, saying: "Today we have learned of FIFA's deadline to associations to support their proposals or have the one-off payout offer withdrawn. This says everything you need to know about this plan.
It added that talks with many stakeholders showed that "there is significant and growing opposition to FIFA's scheme. FIFA cannot to use our sport to enrich themselves and their friends."
Germany's mass-circulation Bild paper reported that key UEFA officials including German FA (DFB) President Bernd Neuendorf had already discussed the FIFA plans via a video call on Wednesday.
"We must not lose the fans' support, but we are well on the way to squandering that," he told public broadcaster ZDF. "I consider this to be extremely problematic and unacceptable.
"If UEFA rejects this request (for approval of the plan), then it is dead, because I believe that you won't be able to find any investor who would be willing to go ahead with this project if UEFA is out," he added.
Other critics have expressed fears that the deal could lead to more tournaments, teams and matches to increase revenue and boost the value of investors' stakes.
UEFA hasn't been the only confederation to criticize the report. CONCACAF, responsible for North and Central America, as well as the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have also expressed concerns that the proposal was made public without their consultation while the African confederation (CAF) have said they will discuss the plans next week.
Members of the FIFA Council, including Neuendorf, have said they were not consulted on the latest proposal.
FIFA has said the new subsidiary, to be known as FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) would be valued at $20 billion and that it would aim to raise up to $4.2 billion "this year" by "carefully selecting long-term investors who will purchase minority, non-controlling interests" in the company.
Under the plan, FIFA said it could make $10 billion available for development beginnin...
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