On the 574th Sporticast episode, hosts Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams discuss some of the biggest sports business stories of the week, including FIFA‘s surprise announcement that it is looking to sell equity in a new venture that holds all of its money-making endeavors.
The plan, which would require approval from a majority of FIFA’s 211 members, would require the creation of a new commercial arm housing ticket sales, media rights, sponsorships, licensing and everything else that contributes to FIFA’s billion-dollar bottom line. FIFA would then capitalize that entity, and seek outside investors for a non-voting, passive minority share.
FIFA said the entity would be valued at about $20 billion and that it would seek to raise about $4 billion via the sale of about 20%. According to multiple reports, the group in talks to lead the investment is Thrive Capital, the investment form of Joshua Kushner, whose brother Jared is married to president Donald Trump‘s daughter Ivanka.
The hosts talk about how the deal would deepen the relationship between FIFA and the Trump family, already a point of contention for many soccer fans and stakeholders. They also discuss the structure of the deal—a private equity model seen in other sports—and how FIFA’s one-nation-one-vote structure plays into both the likely motivation and the likely outcome.
