Gianni Infantino is describing his controversial proposal to sell stakes in Fifa’s football competitions as the democratisation of the global game.
Fifa’s plan to hand private investors a share of World Cup revenues via associates of US President Donald Trump has triggered fury from fans, politicians and governing bodies.
The central incentive Infantino is dangling before member nations is $40m in funding to “develop the game” once the deal is formally finalised.
Infantino has set a deadline of 19 September for federations to accept his plans if they wish to access an initial $20m payment.
This represents the boldest move of Infantino’s decade in charge, from an administrator who views himself as a world leader on par with presidents and prime ministers.
The investment fund at the heart of the proposal is Thrive Capital, led by Josh Kushner, the brother-in-law of Trump’s daughter Ivanka.
Fifa says Greg Maffei, the American former president of Formula 1 owner Liberty Media and a donor to Trump’s political campaigns, is acting as a “key commercial advisor” on the deal.
Since his election as Fifa president in 2016, Infantino has built durable support across Africa, Asia and the Americas through policies that have delivered tangible financial benefits to smaller nations.
Those policies include the expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams and a programme allocating millions in funding directly to member countries every year.
Fifa votes require only a simple majority, and with more than half of the organisation’s 211 members broadly supportive of Infantino, the plan has a genuine chance of passing.
The proposal will appeal strongly to smaller nations for whom a £15m windfall would represent more income than they would ordinarily generate over several years.
Miguel Maduro, a former chairman of Fifa’s governance committee, offered a stinging assessment of how the funding is likely to be used in practice.
“What we know so far about how some national federations spend their money raises a lot of doubts about whether the money reaches the levels of football which Fifa promises,” Maduro said.
Maduro claims he quit his governance role after just 10 months because Infantino and Fifa’s wider leadership disagreed with how the committee was operating.
“Fifa works as a political cartel — it is fed and supported on a system of patronage, that works through the money Fifa distributes to national federations,” he added, warning “there have been cases of corruption.”
“There is a very high likelihood that this proposal will be approved,” Maduro concluded, calling it “a form of legalised bribe.”
Infantino wrote to each member nation outlining the proposal, stating: “The decision whether or not to proceed with this proposal belongs entirely to you. In exchange, all that is required is your trust — everything else remains the same.”
Private equity investment has already reshaped American sport, with rule changes in baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey causing team values to skyrocket over the past decade.
La Liga and Ligue 1 have also sold portions of their operations to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners in exchange for an immediate influx of cash.
The sell-off plan has sharpened Infantino’s ongoing conflict with Uefa President Aleksander Ceferin, who boycotted the World Cup final in protest at a separate Fifa decision.
On Tuesday, Uefa accused Fifa of seeking “to use our sport to enrich themselves and their friends,” with BBC Sport understanding that a meeting of Uefa members is being convened to discuss a formal response.
Some reports have raised the possibility of European nations boycotting the World Cup, though that prospect is complicated by Europe’s role as a co-host of the 2030 tournament.
For now, Infantino appears more emboldened than at any point in his presidency, and those who wish to stop him are running out of time to act.
