ZURICH, July 29 — FIFA’s ambitious plan to create a $20 billion investment fund for its tournaments has triggered a fierce backlash from Europe’s football governing body, UEFA, setting the stage for a battle over who controls the world’s most popular sport.
The proposal, first reported by The New York Times on December 12, 2024, would establish a for-profit entity to operate the men’s and women’s World Cups, the Club World Cup, and other FIFA competitions. Backed by Affinity Partners, a Miami-based investment firm founded in 2021 by Jared Kushner — son-in-law of former U.S. President Donald Trump — the fund is structured to deliver returns for private investors. Kushner’s firm received a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), in 2021.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who took office in February 2016 and secured re-election in 2019 and 2023, has championed the plan as a mechanism to lock in long-term financing for global football development. But the calculus from UEFA’s perspective is starkly different.
On December 13, 2024, UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin — in office since September 2016 — publicly denounced the proposal. He called it a threat to the integrity and governance of football. UEFA’s 55 member associations fear that handing control of tournaments to private investors would upend the traditional nonprofit model that has governed the sport for decades.
The broader stakes are geopolitical. The involvement of Affinity Partners, with its links to Saudi capital through PIF, injects a layer of sovereign wealth influence that critics say undermines transparency. Football supporters’ groups and some national federations outside Europe have also voiced concerns, citing the potential for opaque decision-making and conflicts of interest.
FIFA’s revenue for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, held from November 20 to December 18, 2022, totaled $7.5 billion, according to FIFA’s financial report. The 2026 World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico, is projected to generate even higher revenue. Strategically, the proposed fund would allow FIFA to tap those future earnings streams upfront, but at the cost of ceding control to outside investors.
The FIFA Council, which includes representatives from all six confederations, is expected to discuss the proposal at its next meeting in early 2025. Affinity Partners has declined to comment on the specifics of the plan.
What this signals is a fundamental rift in football governance. Infantino’s vision of a commercially driven, investor-backed FIFA clashes directly with UEFA’s defense of the existing nonprofit structure. The outcome of the Council discussions will determine whether the sport’s governing body pivots toward private equity — or holds the line on its century-old model.
