GENEVA — Global opposition to FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s plan for selling a stake in World Cup revenue to private investors grew Thursday with Asia’s soccer leader warning members about threats to their own competitions. “FIFA’s unilateral actions appear to undermine the very foundations of continental football,” the Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa said in a letter to member federations. The sheikh’s letter, seen by the Associated Press, circulated as European soccer body UEFA prepared to host an online meeting of its 55 national members on Thursday to shape a strategy for resisting Infantino’s plan. The FIFA project would be underwritten by a New York investment vehicle, Thrive Eternal, created by Joshua Kushner, the brother of U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Infantino has had close ties to Jared Kushner since the first Trump administration. Infantino held secret talks in recent months with potential backers in the U.S. about creating the US$20 billion FIFA Forward Enterprise subsidiary with $4.2 billion of private equity. It comes off the back of a record-setting men’s World Cup in North America that pushed FIFA’s income to $15 billion over the past four years. The 55 European federations and 46 from Asia count close to a majority of FIFA’s 211 member countries globally that each was given a Sept. 19 deadline by Infantino to accept a one-time offer of $20 million to invest. The North American soccer body known as CONCACAF, with 35 FIFA members, has said it is “deeply concerned by the lack of due process” in Infantino’s project revealed on Tuesday. Sheikh Salman, an ally to Infantino since losing the FIFA presidential election to him in 2016, wrote in his letter “such an initiative will not succeed without the support of all the confederations, which is not the case now.” Infantino wrote to the 211 members late Tuesday that on top of the initial $20 million offer, if they approve creating FFE their promised $10 million basic funding for the next four years will double to $20 million. He projected their FIFA funding through 2038 would be $86 million each, instead of about $36 million. Infantino is due for re-election by the 211 FIFA members next March for a fourth and final term in office through 2031. Soccer officials have said privately Infantino eyes a commissioner-like role at the FFE spinoff beyond 2031. Infantino’s ‘offer, not obligation’ In a video message published on Wednesday by FIFA, Infantino insisted the private equity plan to spin off its money-making operations was “an offer, not an obligation.” “It’s part of a democratic process, a consultation process,” Infantino said in the FIFA video, “and, above all, it is an opportunity but not an obligation.” A FIFA presentation for its members, seen by the AP, sets a late October target for investors to transfer funds to FIFA. The document sets a goal for the governing body, created by European officials in 1904, to “build the infrastructure and systems for FIFA to lead for another 100 years and beyond.” The goal for FFE, intended to be 20% owned by private equity, was set as “commercial rigor and expertise to better capitalize on broadcast rights, sponsorships and a growing tournament portfolio.” FIFA squeeze on continental games That growing portfolio likely would include adding more teams to FIFA competitions like the World Cup and Club World Cup for men and women, and potentially staging them more often than every four years, including in the U.S. FIFA adding teams, games and competitions would squeeze the value, status and space in the congested global fixture calendar for those that fund and are organized by the six continental soccer bodies like UEFA and the AFC. Those include World Cup qualifying games, continental tournaments and Champions Leagues. “It is important that the AFC family has a complete understanding,” Sheikh Salman wrote, “of how such an initiative may affect key areas of global and Asian football, including the sustainability of confederation and (domestic) competitions, as well as the organization and commercial landscape surrounding the AFC’s activities.” Sheikh Salman also advised members not to take a position on Infantino’s cash offer until the AFC has formal talks with FIFA. The global and European groups of domestic leagues also have opposed FIFA’s plan as a threat to their competitions. UEFA’s previous boycott threat UEFA’s options for the members meeting on Thursday include withdrawing from playing in and hosting FIFA competitions. A threatened World Cup boycott from Europe helped derail Infantino’s plan in 2021 to play World Cups every two years instead of four. The next FIFA competition is in Europe, the Women’s Under-20 World Cup hosted by Poland from Sept. 5. ___ Graham Dunbar, The Associated Press
