Numerous organizations, federations and international football leaders expressed their “concern about the lack of transparency and information” regarding FIFA’s intentions to open the door to private capital to finance its major tournaments through the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) project.
The highest body in world football and its president, Gianni Infantino, are at the center of controversy after the unveiling of an idea with which FIFA maintains that it will expand funding for the development of football to more than $10 billion for its 211 associations.
The first criticism came from UEFA, before FIFA itself confirmed its project, ensuring that Infantino’s intention is to cross a line that “should never be crossed.” «None of us own football. “It is not up to FIFA to sell it,” warned the body chaired by Slovenian Alexander Ceferin, vice president and member of the FIFA Council who must approve the idea.
Criticism for lack of transparency
Following UEFA’s words, other organizations and federations have also expressed their displeasure at the lack of transparency and information in the process that FIFA intends to carry out.
“Concacaf became aware of this matter only through information published by the media and, subsequently, through a press release,” lamented the body that brings together the football associations of North, Central America and the Caribbean.
Along these lines, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) reproached FIFA for initiatives of “magnitude and significance” such as creating a subsidiary to market its events “must be based on the principles of good governance, transparency and substantial consultation.”
The English Federation (FA) also joined this wave of criticism, which was “concerned” about the lack of governance and transparency, as well as the president of the French Federation, Philippe Diallo, regarding a project by Infantino to open the organization to private investors, about which it has “no details”, which “generates many questions” and which has been prepared without the federations “having been associated.”
On social networks, different figures criticized FIFA’s plans such as the European Commissioner for Sports, Glenn Micallef, who said that “this is not baseball” and asked that they “take their hands off football,” and Javier Tebas, president of LaLiga, who denounced that “Infantino is not the solution to FIFA’s governance because he mixes politics, money and power without transparency.”
For his part, former FIFA president Sepp Blatter lamented that “the close relationship between the president of FIFA and the president of the United States has reached a financial dimension that deeply damages football.”
«The World Cup is not just any commercial asset. “It is a global sports institution built over generations thanks to the collective contribution of the entire football ecosystem,” highlighted the Union of European Football Clubs (UEC), which represents more than 150 professional clubs from across Europe.
FIFA’s plans
FIFA confirmed that it intends to expand funding for football development to more than $10 billion, through FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), a new subsidiary owned and controlled by it to consolidate the organisation’s commercial and event operations.
As explained in a statement, the initiative advanced this Tuesday is subject to the approval of its 211 member associations and, if it goes ahead, it would allocate approximately 20 million dollars per association in exceptional and immediate financing for special projects of the new FIFA Fast-Forward Program (FFFP) and 20 million also per association in Forward program funds for the period 2027-2030 (currently budgeted at 8 million dollars).
According to the British newspaper “The Times”, FIFA has given a period of 53 days to accept the 53 million dollars they offer to each of the 211 nations that make up the association to accept the new proposal regarding the World Cup. If they reject it, they will receive 75% less money.
The initiative recovers the shadows of a similar proposal launched in April 2018, when Infantino promoted an injection of 25,000 million dollars in 12 years together with the Japanese fund SoftBank and a consortium of Asian and Middle Eastern investors to create new competitions, including an expanded Club World Cup.
That project was scrapped, as on this occasion, after firm opposition from UEFA and the main continental leagues, which considered the value of their strategic assets, such as the Champions League and the Euro Cup, at risk.
