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FIFA's Infantino sets deadline for $20M offer to members in Kushner-backed World Cup investor plan

Associated Press (AP) via ABC News · back to the audit
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has set a Sept. 19 deadline for the 211 member federations to accept a $20 million offer to each in his controversial plan to sell stakes in a subsidiary running the World Cup.

GENEVA -- FIFA President Gianni Infantino set a Sept. 19 deadline on Wednesday for the 211 member federations to accept one-off $20 million offers as part of a project to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors.

The $20 billion FIFA subsidiary, bankrolled by the brother of Jared Kushner, was blasted by international soccer organizations. Europe's soccer body UEFA aims to call its 55 member federations to an emergency online meeting, likely on Thursday.

Infantino set out the "singular and unique funding opportunity" in a letter detailing why he wants to create the $20 billion FIFA subsidiary -- 20% owned by private investors -- that would run the soccer body's competitions and events like World Cups and Club World Cups.

"It is my duty and responsibility as FIFA president to present such game-changing opportunities to you, our members," Infantino wrote in the letter seen by The Associated Press.

The proposal revealed Tuesday and backed by Joshua Kushner's investment firm Thrive Capital was met with immediate fury by Infantino's former colleagues at UEFA, which said the World Cup "is not FIFA's to sell."

"We are deeply concerned by the lack of due process," CONCACAF said in a statement.

The Kuala Lumpur-based Asian Football Confederation said it was "disappointed that a matter of such significance entered the public domain before the AFC family had been afforded the opportunity to examine and discuss it."

If the FIFA Forward Enterprise subsidiary is approved by a majority of the 211 members, they also each are promised $20 million in funding from the four-year commercial cycle tied to the men's 2030 World Cup.

If Infantino's plan is rejected, those members will get their previously promised $10 million over the next four years, his letter stated.

The cash difference on offer Wednesday to FIFA members appears to be $86 million over 12 years compared to about $36 million in existing promised funding for rejecting the private equity deal.

That would lead, Infantinto wrote, to "a pool of diverse international investors" joining Joshua Kushner's Thrive as the anchor investor: "This process will be led by J.P. Morgan."

Concerns about the latest and previously secret plan were aired Wednesday by the continental soccer bodies for Asia and the North American region known as CONCACAF.

FIFA's plan met quick opposition from British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, whose government is preparing to support hosting the 2035 Women's World Cup in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

"Football does not belong to investors," Burnham, a longtime soccer fan, said in a video message on Instagram. "Once you have sold a piece of (the World Cup), you have sold out. Football belongs to the fans. It always has, and it always will."