UEFA will hold an emergency meeting of its 55 members on Thursday to discuss plans, including a potential World Cup boycott, as it coordinates its response to FIFA’s proposal to sell a stake in the tournament to private investors.
FIFA is planning to raise an estimated $4.2 billion in 2026 by selling a reported 20% minority stake in a new subsidiary at an equity valuation of $20 billion, called FIFA Forward Enterprise and controlling the nonprofit’s “commercial and event operations.”
UEFA is stepping up its opposition to FIFA’s proposal to raise $20 billion through the sale of minority equity in a newly created commercial entity, with sources indicating European football’s governing body is preparing an emergency meeting of its 55 member associations to discuss possible action, including a boycott of future FIFA World Cups.
Spain won the 2026 World Cup.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino confirmed the initiative on July 28, describing it as a way to “unleash the commercial potential and opportunity that FIFA has” and to “democratize” funding for the global game.
The bombshell announcement came less than two weeks after the 2026 World Cup final in New Jersey.
UEFA reacted with unusual force, releasing a strongly worded statement that accused FIFA of crossing a fundamental line: “This crosses a line that football’s governing institutions should never cross… The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade — especially with zero transparency as to who gains financially. None of us are the owners of football. It is not FIFA’s to sell.”
UEFA’s statement said: “This crosses a line that football’s governing institutions should never cross. UEFA takes it extremely seriously. So should every National Football Association. So should every stakeholder: leagues, clubs, players, supporters, governments and everyone who cares about the future of the game.”
The proposal targets Kushner-connected investors.
The lead investor in the subsidiary – to be called FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) – is Joshua Kushner, the brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
FIFA is working with financial services firm J.P. Morgan on the proposal, with prospective investors including Thrive Eternal, a firm launched by Joshua Kushner.
Infantino framed it differently.
“This is about the democratization of football worldwide,” Infantino said in FIFA’s statement.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin seized on the moment.
LaLiga president Javier Tebas, 63, fired back hard.
The proposal has also drawn scathing criticism from various figures across the sport, including LaLiga president Javier Tebas, who wrote on X on Wednesday: “This does not look like reform. Infantino is not the solution to FIFA’s governance. He is the problem. We are delving deeper into the iceberg and what remains to come to the surface.”
The English Football Association also warned of deeper concerns.
“We were completely unaware of this proposal and have no substantive details, including what the proposal actually is, and what conditions are attached. Based on the limited information, we are deeply concerned about the lack of process and governance to get to this point, and the apparent substance and principles involved. When the proposal is shared in the full and transparent way now promised by FIFA, we will make our views clear, and comment further.”
Other confederations said they were blindsided entirely.
The Confederations of North, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF) and Asia (AFC) delivered stinging rebukes on Wednesday, saying they learned of FIFA’s equity sale proposal through media reports rather than official channels.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham weighed in by name.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham became the first prominent world leader to publicly criticize the FIFA proposal, posting on X that “football does not belong to investors.”
The pressure has leverage in recent history.
FIFA abandoned a proposal in 2021 to stage the World Cup every two years because of the threat of a UEFA boycott, and the same deterrent is expected to be used to fight FIFA’s latest plan.
UEFA is now scrambling to hold a virtual emergency meeting with its 55 national associations before the week’s end to plan a coordinated response, with sources indicating that a potential boycott of FIFA events — including future World Cups and the expanded Club World Cup — is firmly on the table as a deterrent.
The 2026 World Cup had just shattered records.
The proposal arrives after FIFA generated record World Cup revenue of approximately $12 billion from the expanded 2026 tournament across the United States, Canada and Mexico.
FIFA is coming off arguably its most commercially successful tournament ever, and instead of enjoying the moment, it has triggered a governance crisis that could end with Europe’s national teams sitting out future editions of the competition that just made everyone rich.
FIFA says the deal sweetens funding for all members.
FIFA’s 211 member associations would each be given $20 million in funding if the deal goes through, the organization said, and annual funds to members would continue increasing through 2038.
Member federations will vote by September 19.
According to the Associated Press, Infantino has set a September 19 deadline for the member associations to accept the optional payment.
In the viral moment that triggered this story, FIFA announced its blockbuster privatization scheme on Tuesday, July 28, just hours after mounting criticism of Infantino’s defensive Instagram post responding to World Cup controversies. The FIFA president shared a 15-slide message Monday defending the tournament’s safety and commercialization against detractors, which Tebas and others had immediately condemned as tone-deaf. Then came FIFA’s answer: instead of addressing governance concerns, it unveiled plans to invite Wall Street into soccer’s biggest prize, a radical restructuring Infantino described as “democratization” but which UEFA swiftly denounced as selling the sport’s soul. The announcement was made public Tuesday morning without advance consultation with UEFA, CONCACAF, AFC, or most other regional confederations, who discovered the $20 billion plan through news reports.
Infantino set a deadline for member associations to vote on the plan for September 19.