FIFA has dropped its plan to bring private investors into the World Cup after facing strong opposition from football bodies across the world.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino confirmed on Saturday that the proposal would not move forward.
“Our purpose has always been and will always be to unite and improve,” Infantino said in a statement.
“As a result, this proposal will not proceed.”
FIFA announced the plan earlier this week. It wanted to create a new commercial company called FIFA Forward Enterprise. The body believed the project could be worth $20 billion. It also hoped to raise up to $4.2 billion through private investment.
FIFA said the money would help its 211 member associations. Each country could have received a one time payment of $20 million in early 2027. It also planned to increase funding for the 2027 to 2030 cycle from $8 million to $20 million.
However, the proposal quickly faced strong criticism.
UEFA strongly opposed the idea. It warned that its member associations would not take part in FIFA competitions if the proposal stayed in place.
“The World Cup cannot be treated as an investment product,” UEFA said.
“No part of it should ever be surrendered to private investors. The World Cup is not for sale.”
The Asian Football Confederation and CONCACAF also rejected the proposal.
“The fact that the situation has reached the point where the real possibility of a FIFA World Cup boycott has entered public discourse should concern everyone who cares about the future of our game,” the AFC said.
Pressure on FIFA increased when senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro resigned. He described the proposal as “a bad deal for FIFA’s member associations, a bad deal for football, and a bad deal for the long term future of the game”.
South American football body CONMEBOL also asked FIFA for more details about the project’s scope, structure, governance and possible effects.
Infantino said the project had been designed to strengthen FIFA’s member associations. He added that it would only have gone ahead if most members supported it.
“Having listened carefully to all the views, it has become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place,” he said.
FIFA had earlier defended the proposal and said “nobody is selling football”. It also promised to continue discussions with its member associations.
The criticism later spread beyond football. The European Union praised UEFA for defending the integrity of the game. UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham also said Infantino was “the wrong man” to lead FIFA.
Infantino said he would now focus on bringing everyone back together.
“Moving forward, my intent is to bring all interested parties back together in the coming days and weeks in the spirit of shared interest in our game, and with the objective to continue growing football everywhere, particularly in those countries that mostly need our support,” he said.
