{"id":41384,"date":"2026-08-03T09:29:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T07:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=41384"},"modified":"2026-08-03T09:29:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T07:29:49","slug":"fifa-must-rebuild-trust-after-scrapping-world-cup-investor-proposal-boyce","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/fifa-must-rebuild-trust-after-scrapping-world-cup-investor-proposal-boyce\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA must rebuild trust after scrapping World Cup investor proposal: Boyce"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Former International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) Vice President Jim Boyce said on Sunday world soccer&#8217;s governing body should focus on the interests of fans after President Gianni Infantino abandoned plans to sell a stake in the World Cup to private investors, calling the proposal &#8220;ludicrous&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">FIFA had proposed raising up \u200bto $4.2 billion by selling a roughly 20% stake in a new entity that would oversee FIFA competitions, including the World \u200cCup.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The proposal, unveiled on Tuesday, drew immediate backlash. European football&#8217;s governing body Union of European Football Associations threatened to boycott FIFA events and accused the organisation of putting the sport&#8217;s &#8220;soul&#8221; up for sale.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">FIFA had argued that selling a minority stake in its commercial operations would generate billions of dollars to support soccer development worldwide and accused the media of mischaracterising \u200bthe proposal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8220;There&#8217;s no way that this should be sold to investors,&#8221; Boyce told Reuters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8220;If you invest, you&#8217;re looking to make money \u200bout of that investment. FIFA is a non-profit organisation. To promote football throughout the world, they don&#8217;t need \u2060outside investors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Boyce said the episode had left FIFA with considerable work to do to restore trust.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8220;The average football fan has been sickened\u00a0\u200bby what has happened. They are willing to see what repair work is going to be done,&#8221; Boyce said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8220;The President of FIFA is a \u200bvery high-ranking position. And now, if he wants to retain his position, he&#8217;s got to start the repair work caused by the damage from what I can only describe as a ludicrous suggestion.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":41385,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,20],"class_list":["post-41384","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Boyce said world soccer's governing body should focus on the interests of fans","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41384","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":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41387,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41384\/revisions\/41387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=41384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}