- 2 months ago
Gianni Infantino’s World Cup plan has become one of the most controversial ideas in modern football governance.
What was once presented as a bold vision for global inclusion now faces widespread skepticism from fans, clubs, players, broadcasters, and even football administrators.
The central issue is not simply that the plan is ambitious, but that it appears increasingly disconnected from the practical realities of the sport.
As FIFA continues to defend the expansion and reshaping of the tournament format, public patience is thinning.
In many football circles, the question is no longer whether the plan is innovative, but whether it is genuinely good for the game.
Why Infantino’s World Cup Plan Drew Attention in the First Place
A Grand Vision of Global Reach
Infantino’s World Cup plan has been marketed as a way to make football more inclusive and more global.
What was once presented as a bold vision for global inclusion now faces widespread skepticism from fans, clubs, players, broadcasters, and even football administrators.
The central issue is not simply that the plan is ambitious, but that it appears increasingly disconnected from the practical realities of the sport.
As FIFA continues to defend the expansion and reshaping of the tournament format, public patience is thinning.
In many football circles, the question is no longer whether the plan is innovative, but whether it is genuinely good for the game.
Why Infantino’s World Cup Plan Drew Attention in the First Place
A Grand Vision of Global Reach
Infantino’s World Cup plan has been marketed as a way to make football more inclusive and more global.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Gianni Infantino's plan to sell part of the FIFA World Cup was already facing heavy criticism.
00:06But when one of his closest advisors walked away from the project,
00:09the backlash reached a whole new level.
00:12Let me break it down.
00:13Let's start with the man who just quit.
00:16Carlos Cordero was Infantino's senior advisor.
00:20He sat on the White House task force for the World Cup.
00:23He's a former Goldman Sachs banker, a former president of U.S. soccer.
00:27And he'd spent years standing next to Infantino, in rooms with presidents and prime ministers.
00:33This week he walked out.
00:35Cordero didn't quietly step down either.
00:37He put out a statement and made it personal.
00:40He said he cannot stand by while FIFA considers selling a stake in the World Cup.
00:45That's the man who was supposed to be Infantino's eyes and ears on the Kushner-backed deal,
00:50telling the world he wanted no part of it.
00:53And here's the detail that makes this so damaging for Infantino.
00:56Well, Cordero says he wasn't even in the room when this thing was cooked up.
01:00He revealed he was not involved in the secretive investment plan
01:04that has rocked the sport since media reports revealed it.
01:07Think about that.
01:08This is Infantino's own senior advisor,
01:11a guy whose entire job is supposedly to advise on exactly this kind of thing.
01:16And he says he found out about a $20 billion plan
01:19to sell off pieces of the World Cup the same way the rest of us did.
01:23Through a like, Cordero didn't hold back on what he thinks of the deal itself either.
01:28He called it a bad deal for football, full stop.
01:31And he made his opposition unmistakable,
01:34saying he had no involvement in the proposal and opposes it without reservation.
01:38Now, FIFA's response to all of this.
01:41Hours before Cordero's resignation dropped,
01:44the organization had already put out a statement trying to calm nerves,
01:48insisting that nobody is selling football.
01:50That line was supposed to be reassurance.
01:53Instead, it landed right before FIFA's own inner circle started peeling away in public.
01:59Cordero didn't just leave quietly and disappear either.
02:02Part of his exit statement was a call for other senior FIFA staff to speak out too.
02:07Basically inviting more people inside the building to do what he just did.
02:11That's not a normal resignation.
02:14That's a former insider trying to open the floodgates.
02:17To understand why Cordero's exit lands so hard,
02:20you need to know how close he actually was to Infantino's operation.
02:24This wasn't some low-level staffer.
02:26Cordero often joined Infantino on trips to the White House to meet with President Trump.
02:31And he took part in meetings of the administration's World Cup task force,
02:36which is run by Andrew Giuliani.
02:38This is a guy who was in the room for the biggest political meetings FIFA
02:41had going into this summer's tournament in the US, Mexico, and Canada.
02:46So when someone with that level of access says he had zero involvement in the plan
02:50and opposes it completely, it raises an obvious question who actually knew about this before it
02:56leaked.
02:56And the answer, based on everything coming out this week, appears to be
03:00almost nobody outside a very small circle around Infantino himself.
03:05This is where the story really starts to widen out,
03:07because Cordero isn't a lone voice complaining into the void.
03:10His resignation landed on what's being described as another seismic day in soccer politics.
03:17A day where continent after continent turned against the plan.
03:20Asia's soccer body, the Asian Football Confederation,
03:24which has 46 of FIFA's 211 member countries,
03:27and has been one of Infantino's most reliable allies for over a decade,
03:32came out and said it stands in solidarity with Europe's soccer body
03:35and North America's soccer body.
03:37The first two confederations to oppose the plan.
03:41The Asian body didn't just object to the substance of the deal.
03:44They said football should never have been placed in such a position in the first place.
03:49A direct shot at how this whole thing was handled from the start.
03:53So in the space of one week,
03:54Infantino went from having what looked like a clear, unopposed path to a fourth term as FIFA president.
04:00To watching his own senior advisor quit publicly,
04:03while three of the sport's biggest confederations turned against his signature plan.
04:07That's the setup.
04:09Now let's dig into what this plan actually is,
04:12who's bankrolling it, and why it's caused this much damage this fast.
04:15So what exactly did Infantino try to do?
04:18The plan is called FIFA Forward Enterprise, or FFE for short.
04:22The idea is to take FIFA's commercial businesses,
04:25World Cups and Club World Cups,
04:27for both the men's and women's game,
04:29and spin them off into a separate company.
04:32Infantino has proposed spinning off FIFA's commercial businesses,
04:36including World Cups and Club World Cups for men and women,
04:39into a $20 billion subsidiary, with 20% owned by private investors.
04:4520% of a $20 billion company.
04:48That's the number that set off alarm bells across the sport.
04:52This isn't FIFA taking out a loan or signing a sponsorship deal.
04:56This is FIFA selling a chunk of ownership
04:58in the commercial machine behind the World Cup itself.
05:01The broadcast writes the sponsorships,
05:03the ticketing, the licensing, all of it.
05:05Reports describe the deal as one where Thrive would lead a group,
05:09investing up to $4.2 billion to buy a stake.
05:12With talks also underway to bring in Apollo Sports Capital,
05:16an offshoot of the private equity giant Apollo,
05:19which manages more than a trillion dollars in assets.
05:22FIFA is also reportedly working with J.P. Morgan on the deal.
05:26Now who's actually bankrolling this thing?
05:29This is where it gets interesting,
05:30because the name attached to the money
05:32is one that comes with a lot of political baggage.
05:35FIFA describes the anchor investor
05:37as a New York-based investment firm created by Joshua Kushner,
05:42the younger brother of Jard Kushner,
05:44who is President Trump's son-in-law.
05:46The firm is Thrive Capital,
05:48operating here through a vehicle called Thrive Eternal.
05:50Thrive isn't some small operation either.
05:53A source close to the firm told CBS News
05:56that Thrive now has $60 billion in assets under management,
06:00pushing back on the idea that the Kushner name alone
06:03got this deal done,
06:04and describing Joshua Kushner
06:06as a serious businessman in his own right.
06:08Thrive's portfolio includes stakes in companies
06:11like OpenAI, Stripe, and SpaceX,
06:13along with a stake in the San Francisco giants
06:16through Thrive Eternal,
06:17so this isn't Kushner's first move
06:19into pro-sports ownership.
06:21But the politics are impossible
06:22to separate from the money here.
06:25Infantino's relationship with Trump
06:26has been under a microscope all year.
06:29The two stood side by side at the World Cup final.
06:32Infantino has made repeated visits to the White House.
06:35And now the family of the president's son-in-law
06:38is positioned to become a financial stakeholder
06:41in the tournament itself.
06:42A source close to Kushner's firm
06:44insisted to CBS News
06:46that any assumption Trump himself
06:48was involved in the deal in any capacity
06:50simply isn't accurate.
06:52Maybe so.
06:53But that hasn't stopped the perception problem
06:55from becoming its own story.
06:57FIFA, for its part,
06:58has tried to frame the whole thing
07:00as something other than a sale.
07:02Infantino has described it
07:04as the democratization of football worldwide,
07:07arguing that FIFA would keep control
07:08over governance and sporting decisions,
07:11while member federations could still have a voice.
07:13FIFA's official statement doubled down
07:16on that framing too,
07:17insisting nobody is selling football.
07:19Here's how Infantino tried to sweeten the deal
07:22for the 211 member federations,
07:24who actually run FIFA as a non-profit under Swiss law.
07:28He wrote directly to them,
07:29offering something like a bribe dressed up as a bonus.
07:32But there was a catch,
07:34and it's the catch that turned allies
07:35into critics almost overnight.
07:37The offer came with a deadline,
07:39except by mid-September, or lose out.
07:41Member federations that don't approve the deal
07:44by that date would miss out
07:45on an immediate $20 million payment,
07:48and another $20 million raised
07:50over the following three years.
07:52That deadline is the detail that kept coming up
07:55in almost every rejection statement
07:57from every confederation.
07:59It wasn't just the private equity part of the plan
08:01that upset people.
08:02It was being told to sign off on a $20 billion
08:06restructuring of the sport's biggest asset
08:08in a matter of weeks.
08:09With money dangled as the incentive to move fast
08:12and not ask too many questions.
08:14And that's exactly what set the stage
08:16for what happened next.
08:17Because once the details got out,
08:19three of FIFA's most powerful regional bodies
08:22didn't just raise concerns behind closed doors.
08:25They went public one after another and said no.
08:28If Cordero's resignation was the personal betrayal,
08:31what happened with Europe, North America,
08:33and Asia was the structural one.
08:35These are the three confederations that, combined,
08:38represent close to half of FIFA's entire membership.
08:41And in the space of about 48 hours,
08:43all three turned against Infantino's plan
08:46in public statements.
08:47Europe went first and Europe went hardest.
08:50UEFA held what's been described as an emergency meeting
08:53of its 55 member nations.
08:55And the result wasn't a polite objection,
08:57it was a full boycott threat.
08:59UEFA said its national associations
09:01would not participate in FIFA competitions at all,
09:04for as long as the plan stays alive.
09:07Think about what that actually means in practice.
09:10UEFA's 55 members include Germany, France,
09:13England, and Spain, the reigning world champions.
09:16If that boycott holds,
09:17it doesn't just threaten some minor tournament.
09:20It threatens the men's and women's World Cups,
09:23and the club World Cup,
09:24because those are exactly the competitions
09:26UEFA named in its warning.
09:28The language UEFA used wasn't diplomatic either.
09:31In an early statement responding to the first reports of the deal,
09:35UEFA said the sole and governance of football
09:37are not assets to trade,
09:39especially with zero transparency
09:41over who actually profits.
09:43They followed that days later
09:44by calling the whole proposal irresponsible
09:47and indefensible,
09:48insisting the sport's governance
09:50shouldn't be steered by what delivers
09:52the best return for investors.
09:54By the time UEFA's member nations
09:56had finished their emergency meeting,
09:58the final statement was blunt.
10:00No UEFA national teams would take part
10:02in any FIFA competition
10:03for as long as the proposals stay alive.
10:06Unless the plan is scrapped entirely
10:08and FIFA gives binding guarantees,
10:10it will never again open its governance
10:12or competitions to private ownership.
10:15That's not a threat with wiggle room.
10:17That's a line in the sand.
10:19UEFA went further,
10:20calling the whole situation
10:22not just a failure of leadership,
10:24but something closer to FIFA abandoning its duty
10:26as the guardian of the sport.
10:28Strong words considering Infantino himself
10:31spent years as a UEFA staffer
10:33before he ever ran FIFA.
10:34He was the organization's general secretary,
10:37right up until he was elected FIFA president
10:40back in 2016.
10:41This is, in a very real sense,
10:43Infantino's old house
10:45turning the lights off on him.
10:46There's a timing element
10:47that makes UEFA's threat land even harder.
10:50The very next FIFA event on the calendar
10:52is the under-20 Women's World Cup,
10:55hosted by Poland,
10:56kicking off just weeks from now.
10:58Multiple UEFA nations,
10:59Spain, Portugal, Italy, France,
11:02England and host nation Poland,
11:04are set to compete in that tournament.
11:06If the boycott actually gets enforced,
11:08it's not some hypothetical
11:09future World Cup at risk.
11:11It's the next thing on the calendar.
11:14Then came North America.
11:16CONCACAF, representing 41 member federations
11:19including the US,
11:20held its own meeting
11:22and came back with a rejection of its own.
11:24Their statement didn't threaten a boycott
11:26the way UEFA's did,
11:27but it was pointed in a different direction,
11:29going after the process itself.
11:32CONCACAF said its membership
11:33had deep concerns
11:34about the lack of due process
11:36around the proposal,
11:38calling out what they described
11:39as an artificially short deadline,
11:41along with the fact that the plan
11:43had never been reviewed
11:44or approved by FIFA's own governance bodies.
11:47CONCACAF's statement
11:48also raised a question
11:50that's hard to argue with on its face.
11:52Why does FIFA need private equity money at all,
11:55right after running
11:56what's being called
11:57the most profitable World Cup
11:58in the organization's history?
12:00If the tournament just posted record numbers,
12:03what exactly is the emergency
12:04that requires selling off a stake
12:06to outside investors?
12:08US soccer, one of CONCACAF's 41 members,
12:12didn't stay quiet either.
12:13The federation posted its support
12:15for the confederation's stance.
12:17Standing with CONCACAF and its members,
12:20that matters because US soccer
12:22is one of the federations
12:23that would have been offered
12:24that one-off payment
12:25under Infantino's deadline,
12:27and they said no anyway.
12:29Then Asia weighed in,
12:30and this one might sting Infantino
12:32the most personally.
12:33The Asian Football Confederation
12:35has been one of his most dependable blocks
12:37of support for his entire 11 years running FIFA.
12:41Its longtime president,
12:42Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa,
12:45actually ran against Infantino
12:47for the FIFA presidency.
12:48Back in 2016 and lost narrowly,
12:51and since then,
12:52Asia's bloc has largely stood behind him.
12:54Now that bloc said it stands
12:56with UEFA and CONCACAF,
12:58and it went a step further
12:59than either of them.
13:00By calling for a full review
13:01of FIFA's governance and decision-making,
13:04Asia's statement didn't stop.
13:06At criticizing the private equity plan
13:08on its merits,
13:09it went after how FIFA operates
13:11as an institution,
13:12saying the whole situation
13:13had exposed weaknesses
13:15in how the organization consults its members
13:17and makes decisions in the first place.
13:20Coming from a confederation
13:21with 46 member countries
13:23and a long track record of loyalty
13:25to Infantino,
13:26that's about as damaging a rebuke
13:28as it gets.
13:29Added Up and UEFA,
13:30CONCACAF and the AFC together
13:33represent roughly 90 of FIFA's
13:35211 member federations.
13:37Nowhere near a majority on paper,
13:40but more than enough
13:40to make Infantino's plan
13:42functionally impossible
13:43to push through without a fight.
13:45And it wasn't over yet.
13:46Africa's confederation,
13:48CAF,
13:49announced its executive committee
13:50would meet
13:51to evaluate the proposal
13:52on its own timeline,
13:54while South America's CONMEBOL
13:56and Oceania's OFC
13:58stayed publicly quiet,
13:59leaving their positions
14:00as open questions
14:01hanging over the whole situation.
14:04With Cordero gone
14:05and three confederations
14:06publicly against him,
14:08you might expect Infantino
14:09to hit pause.
14:10He didn't.
14:11FIFA's public posture
14:12through all of this
14:13has been to defend the plan
14:14and point the finger
14:15somewhere else
14:16at the media.
14:17FIFA's statement on the matter
14:19was direct about
14:20where it placed the blame,
14:21saying its planned
14:22consultation process
14:23was disrupted
14:24by incorrect media reports.
14:26In other words,
14:27according to FIFA,
14:28the problem isn't
14:29the $20 billion sale
14:31of World Cup commercial rights
14:32to a private investment group
14:34tied to the Kushner family.
14:36The problem is that
14:37people found out about it
14:38before FIFA was ready
14:40to explain it
14:41on its own terms.
14:42That's a tough sell
14:43when you look at the timeline.
14:44Reports out of
14:45the Financial Times
14:46and the Times first broke
14:47the news of the FFE plan.
14:49FIFA didn't get ahead
14:50of the story.
14:51It reacted to it
14:52days after the plan
14:53had already been leaking out.
14:55And days after UEFA
14:56had already fired off
14:57its first public warning shot,
14:59calling the reports
15:00a line football's
15:01governing institutions
15:02should never cross.
15:03Infantino, for his part,
15:05has continued to describe
15:06the deal in far friendlier
15:08terms than his critics.
15:09He's called it
15:10the democratization
15:11of football worldwide,
15:13arguing this brings resources
15:14into the game
15:15rather than draining them out.
15:17He's also pushed back
15:18on the idea
15:19that federations
15:20are being forced
15:20into anything,
15:21framing the $20 million
15:23payments
15:23as an optional choice
15:25rather than an obligation,
15:26even as CONCACAF
15:28and UEFA
15:29both flagged
15:30the deadline attached
15:30to that money
15:31as coercive.
15:32Behind FIFA's insistence
15:34that nobody is selling football
15:36sits a genuinely awkward
15:37set of facts.
15:38The plan would let
15:39outside investors
15:40buy up to a 20% minority
15:42stake in a FIFA-controlled company.
15:44Managing the commercial side
15:46of the World Cup,
15:47broadcast rights,
15:48sponsorships,
15:49ticketing, licensing.
15:50FIFA says it would
15:51retain control
15:52over governance
15:53and sporting decisions.
15:54But that's precisely
15:56the distinction critics
15:57don't buy.
15:57Because the commercial rights
15:59being sold off
16:00are inseparable
16:01from the tournament
16:01that made them valuable
16:03in the first place.
16:04This is also
16:05where the deeper
16:05political tension
16:06keeps surfacing.
16:08Infantino's ties to Trump
16:09had already drawn scrutiny.
16:11Throughout the World Cup
16:12this past summer,
16:13hosted jointly
16:14across the US,
16:15Mexico and Canada,
16:16there was already
16:17controversy
16:18during the tournament
16:18itself over FIFA,
16:20allowing American forward
16:21Folarin Balaga
16:22to play against Belgium
16:24despite a red card
16:25suspension
16:26from his prior match.
16:27A decision that came
16:28after Trump acknowledged
16:29personally asking Infantino
16:32to look at Balagun's ban.
16:33So by the time
16:34the FFE story broke,
16:36there was already
16:36a narrative building
16:37around how much influence
16:39Trump world figures
16:40seemed to have
16:41inside FIFA's
16:42decision-making.
16:43A deal bankrolled
16:44by the brother
16:45of the president's son-in-law
16:46landed directly
16:47on top of that story,
16:49not next to it.
16:50FIFA has tried to insist
16:51there's no political angle
16:52to the money itself,
16:53a source close to Thrive
16:55told CBS News.
16:56That any assumption
16:58Trump was involved
16:59in the deal
16:59in any capacity
17:00just isn't accurate.
17:02And pointed instead
17:03to Thrive's scale
17:04as a $60 billion
17:05investment firm
17:07as the real reason
17:08it's in the room.
17:09Maybe that's exactly right,
17:11but Infantino
17:12wasn't just fighting
17:13over the substance
17:13of a financial deal
17:14at this point.
17:15He was fighting
17:16a perception problem
17:17that his own inner circle
17:19had started to walk away from.
17:21That's the backdrop
17:22against which Infantino
17:23has kept pushing
17:24rather than pulling back.
17:25Even with UEFA's boycott threat
17:27sitting on the table,
17:29even with CONCACAF
17:30and the AFC
17:31lined up against him,
17:33even with his own
17:33senior advisor resigning
17:35and publicly inviting
17:36other staff
17:37to speak out too.
17:38FIFA's public message
17:39hasn't been reconsideration,
17:41it's been defense,
17:43insisting the deal
17:44is optional,
17:44insisting it's not
17:45a sale of football,
17:47insisting the real issue
17:48is how the story got out
17:49rather than
17:50what the story actually is.
17:51And that stubbornness
17:53is exactly what's turned this
17:54from a controversy
17:55over one financial proposal
17:57into a question
17:58about Infantino's own future
18:00running the sport.
18:01Here's where all of this lands.
18:03Just 11 days after this year's
18:05World Cup final
18:06wrapped up in
18:07East Rutherford, New Jersey,
18:09Infantino looked like
18:10he had a clear,
18:11uncontested path
18:12to a fourth term
18:13as FIFA president.
18:14One that would run
18:15all the way
18:15through 2031.
18:17FIFA had been briefing
18:18during the tournament
18:19that Infantino
18:20already had letters of support.
18:22From around 200
18:23of FIFA's 211 members.
18:26That's about as close
18:27to unanimous
18:28as it gets in
18:28global sports politics.
18:30Now compare that
18:31to where things stand today.
18:33His senior advisor quit
18:34and told him publicly
18:35that he opposes the plan
18:37without reservation.
18:39UEFA,
18:39representing 55 nations,
18:41including the reigning
18:42world champions,
18:43has threatened to sit out
18:44FIFA competitions entirely.
18:46Unless the deal
18:47is dropped for good.
18:49CONCACAF,
18:50representing 41 federations,
18:51including the US.
18:53Rejected the plan
18:54and called out
18:54the process behind it.
18:56And the AFC,
18:57one of Infantino's
18:58most loyal blocs
18:59for over a decade.
19:00Joined them
19:01and called for FIFA's
19:02entire governance structure
19:03to be reviewed.
19:04FIFA has set
19:05November 18
19:06as the deadline
19:07for anyone
19:08who wants to challenge
19:09Infantino
19:10to declare their candidacy.
19:12Ahead of a presidential vote
19:13scheduled for next March
19:14in Rabat, Morocco.
19:16Eleven days ago,
19:17that vote looked
19:18like a formality.
19:19It doesn't look
19:20that way anymore.
19:21What makes this moment
19:22different from past
19:23FIFA controversies
19:24is where the resistance
19:25is coming from.
19:26This isn't just
19:27outside critics
19:28or journalists
19:29raising questions.
19:30It's Infantino's
19:31own hand-picked advisor.
19:33It's the confederations
19:34that make up
19:34nearly half of
19:35FIFA's membership.
19:36It's the body
19:37that Infantino himself
19:38worked inside.
19:40For years before
19:40he ever became president,
19:42when your own
19:43former organization,
19:44your own hired ally
19:45in Asia,
19:46and the man you put
19:47on the White House task force
19:48all say the same thing
19:50in the same week,
19:51that's not noise anymore.
19:52That's a consensus
19:53forming against you.
19:54FIFA's own numbers
19:55tell part of the story too.
19:57The federations
19:58being offered
19:59that $20 million sweetener
20:01were being asked
20:02to make a decision
20:02by mid-September.
20:04On a deal
20:04most of them
20:05say they never got
20:06to review through
20:07FIFA's own governance channels
20:08before it leaked.
20:10Whatever the merits
20:10of bringing in
20:11private capital
20:12to fund the game,
20:13the way this was rolled out,
20:15left the people
20:16whose approval FIFA
20:17actually needs
20:18feeling like
20:18they were handed
20:19a done deal.
20:20And a countdown clock
20:21instead of a conversation.
20:23Where does that
20:24leave the plan itself?
20:25FIFA's council
20:26and a majority
20:27of its member associations
20:28still have to sign off
20:30on FFE
20:30for it to move forward at all.
20:32And right now
20:33there's no confirmed
20:34timetable for that vote.
20:35What's clear
20:36is that the coalition
20:37needed to get there
20:38has for the moment
20:39come apart in public,
20:41confederation by confederation,
20:43in the space
20:43of about a week.
20:44And where does it
20:45leave Infantino,
20:46he's still FIFA president.
20:48He still has months
20:49before that November deadline
20:50for challengers
20:51to step forward
20:52and months more
20:53before the vote
20:54in Morocco next spring.
20:56Whether those roughly
20:57200 letters of support
20:58he had lined up right
20:59after the World Cup final
21:01are still worth anything today
21:03is an open question
21:04nobody inside FIFA
21:06has answered yet.
21:07What's not in question
21:08is that the sport's
21:09biggest tournament,
21:10the plan to reshape
21:11how its finance,
21:12and the man who built
21:13his career running it
21:14are all now tangled up
21:15in the same fight.
21:17And every confederation
21:18that's spoken up so far
21:19has landed on the same side
21:21against him.