{"id":40973,"date":"2026-07-29T09:39:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T07:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=40973"},"modified":"2026-07-29T09:40:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T07:40:20","slug":"fifa-plans-to-sell-stakes-in-20-bln-subsidiary-to-run-world-cup-angering-uefa","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/fifa-plans-to-sell-stakes-in-20-bln-subsidiary-to-run-world-cup-angering-uefa\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA plans to sell stakes in $20 bln\u00a0subsidiary to run World Cup, angering UEFA"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) said on Tuesday it plans to create a $20 billion subsidiary to run the World Cup and its other events and will offer stakes of up to \u200b20% in it to external investors, a move that provoked a furious response from Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), who accused world soccer&#8217;s governing body of putting the game&#8217;s &#8220;soul&#8221; up for sale.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Under the plan, \u200cFIFA would establish FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) to oversee &#8220;commercial and event operations.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">FIFA, which just held a 48-team World Cup across the United States (US), Canada and Mexico that was the biggest in the tournament&#8217;s history, would retain control of the enterprise, but offer minority stakes in it to private investors to raise up to $4.2 billion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">A vehicle founded by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law, is expected to lead the proposed investor group, FIFA said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The proposal deepens the divide between Switzerland-based FIFA and European soccer&#8217;s governing \u200bbody UEFA, with Europe positioning itself as the custodian of the game while FIFA, a not-for-profit organisation, remains focused on broadening access with financial largesse.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">FIFA is one of the world&#8217;s wealthiest sporting organisations, \u200bgenerating billions of dollars in revenue, largely from broadcasting rights, sponsorship and other commercial deals linked to the World Cup.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">But it says this proposal can increase funds it \u2060provides to widen access to the sport and strengthen global participation, with all net benefits to be reinvested in the game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8220;Football is the world&#8217;s most popular sport and an extraordinary engine of human and social development,&#8221; \u200bFIFA President Gianni Infantino said in a statement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8220;Parts of the game have turned that popularity into remarkable commercial value \u2013 and we celebrate that success and want it to continue, because it lifts the whole game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21069,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-40973","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"FIFA said it plans to create a $20 billion subsidiary to run the World Cup","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40974,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40973\/revisions\/40974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=40973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}