UPDATED: All 55 UEFA member associations have voted to boycott FIFA soccer competitions – including the men’s and women’s World Cups and the Club World Cup – if FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s proposal to sell stakes in its competitions to private investors is approved by member associations, according to BBC Sport. The decision came out of an emergency meeting Thursday, days after FIFA announced the plans Tuesday. The first test of the stance arrives in October, when the Women’s World Cup play-offs are scheduled.
PREVIOUSLY: Opposition is growing in the soccer world to a plan by the sport’s governing body, FIFA, to spin off its events, principally the World Cup, as a separate commercial entity and invite investors to take a stake in it.
The new company, FIFA Forward Enterprise, has been valued at about $20 billion. FIFA would seek to sell a roughly 20% stake in the entity. Among the potential investors is Thrive Eternal, led by Joshua Kushner, brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared, according to the Financial Times.
Among the opponents of the plan are the sport’s governing bodies in North America and Europe.
Concacaf, which runs soccer in North America, Central America and the Caribbean, said it was “deeply concerned by the lack of due process” when the plan was conceived. The federation said it was disappointed that the plan has been revealed “before any discussion with the relevant governance bodies and stakeholders has taken place.”
