L'Équipe: Infantino Abandons Plan to Sell World Cup Stakes, Envious of US Sports League Presidents' Salaries

Hupu August 7 News — French media L'Équipe has published an exclusive column detailing internal FIFA documents and the now-abandoned plan to create a commercialized FIFA entity.

The document, classified as "strictly confidential," has become "somewhat outdated and awkward" since Gianni Infantino announced late on July 31 into early August 1 that he was scrapping the proposal to establish a commercialized FIFA company. At the time, Infantino explained that his "proposal" had sparked "differences... and could no longer achieve the originally set goals."

Following a crisis meeting, FIFA released a statement late Wednesday night admitting to "making mistakes" and confirming it had sent a letter to its 211 member associations expressing "apologies."

The FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) Proposal

A week ago (July 29), a 25-slide presentation — reviewed by L'Équipe — was shown to member associations, detailing Infantino's latest (now abandoned) concept: FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) .

This commercial structure was designed to sell shares in the World Cup, set against the backdrop of the enormous economic success of the previous World Cup co-hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada — initially hailed as "the greatest sporting event in history."

The slideshow displayed the logos of FIFA and its partner, U.S. investment bank JP Morgan, which had previously been involved in the aborted "European Super League" project — a venture in which Infantino-led FIFA was suspected of playing a behind-the-scenes role.

FIFA's Four Major Goals

The presentation listed the organization's strengths:

• "FIFA has never been stronger"
• "Under the current management, a solid foundation has been laid in governance, development, and event organization"
• "From now on, commercial optimization will pave the way for a new era of growth"

The document identified four major goals:

1. Streamlining decision-making processes
2. Improving commercial monetization capabilities
3. Acquiring commercial expertise
4. Broadening access to capital

The analysis was based on the World Cup's audience size — the largest among global international sports events (the 2022 Qatar World Cup final had 1.4 billion viewers) — but noted that revenue did not match this scale. FIFA's average annual revenue stands at $3.6 billion (€3.1 billion) in the 2023-2026 cycle, compared to the NFL's $21.2 billion (€18.4 billion) in the 2024-2025 fiscal year.

"It is time to further accelerate the future development of football," the document stated. "Regardless of future scenarios, FIFA will retain exclusive control and authority over football governance, events, scheduling, and all regulatory and competitive decisions."

Specifically, FFE would centralize management of nearly all commercial operations and event organization, paying an annual fee to FIFA, while FIFA would focus on governance and oversight functions.

Subsidies for Member Associations: Doubling, Then Tripling

The document outlined subsidy increases for member associations under the current "Forward" plan:

| Cycle | Subsidy per Association | |-------|------------------------| | 2023-2026 | $8 million | | 2027-2030 | $20 million | | 2031-2034 | $22 million | | 2035-2039 | $24 million (approx. €20.8 million) |

Additionally, starting from the next cycle, each association would receive up to $20 million (approx. €17.3 million) in "Fast Forward" plan bonuses, to be "raised by selling minority stakes in FFE to a diverse group of top international investors committed to long-term investments." The document did not name these investors specifically.

However, after The Times reported on the matter on July 28, FIFA mentioned several key figures in a statement on its official website:

• Thrive Eternal — a venture capital firm led by American Kushner, a close associate of Donald Trump — would "lead the proposed FFE investor group"
• Greg Maffei — an American businessman who would serve as "commercial advisor" — is CEO of Bann Ventures (an investment firm focused on sports) and formerly led Liberty Media (which acquired and operates F1's commercial rights)

Funding from these investors was expected to be in place by the end of October.

"With over a century of experience leading football, it is now time to build the infrastructure and systems to ensure FIFA remains at the forefront for the next hundred years and beyond," the document continued.

But one executive questioned: "There are no details in the document, not even a word about how investors will be rewarded — through dividends? This proposal is at best naive, and even appears highly unprofessional."

The 64-Team World Cup Proposal

The hasty move coincided with the release of another document — a five-page document published on July 30 exploring the possibility of expanding the FIFA World Cup to 64 teams starting in 2030, another key project pushed by Infantino.

This "research summary," also obtained by L'Équipe, specifically noted: "The analysis (conducted by an institution) must make a clear strategic judgment: whether the 64-team format is feasible and whether it can enhance the economic benefits of football."

"Amid the controversy (over commercialization), he issued an 'institutional briefing' on the World Cup to 64 countries," recalled an observer closely following the organization. "This political timing regarding the future of world football is truly puzzling... Usually, such documents are not released before the end of a term but are used as a platform for re-election campaigns."

The next FIFA election congress is scheduled for mid-March 2027 in Morocco.

Infantino's Motivations

"He has long had this concept," revealed a source. "When you talk to him — like talking to Ceferin — you find he is very concerned about the fact that the actual income of U.S. sports league presidents far exceeds their stated salaries. In conversations, he always brings this up."

This recalls previous comparisons between FIFA and the NFL, MLB, and NBA in terms of data.

"When seeing the huge gap between his salary and that of the NFL president (Roger Goodell, at least $64 million/€55.5 million annually), Infantino was clearly shocked," confirmed a source close to the current crisis. "But FIFA and the NFL are two completely different models. The NFL president oversees about thirty billionaire team owners (who elect the president)."

FIFA, by contrast, is an association organization.

Source: L'Équipe