Less than two weeks after Spain lifted the World Cup in New Jersey, USA, FIFA’s President punctuated the post-tournament calm with plans to sell the tournament’s commercial rights to private investors.
Gianni Infantino’s plan was to create a ‘commercial subsidiary’ Forward Enterprise (FFE).
FFE would be responsible for the federation’s commercial rights, with Infantino quick to point out FIFA would retain 80% of the rights while selling off 20%.
It was also reported that football associations who agreed to the deal would recieve a payment of $40m, while those who rejected the deal would get $20m.
The footballing world revolted almost unanimously, although Infantino did recieve backing from checks notes Qatar, who hosted the last World Cup.
Europe (UEFA), Asia (AFC) and North, Central America and the Caribbean’s (CONCACAF) football associations made it clear they would boycott any future tournaments.
Eventually, Infantino backed down and the plan was scrapped.
We spoke to Keiran Maguire, football finance expert, host of The Price of Football podcast and Professor of Football Finance and Liverpool University, to break down the deal and explain how Infantino's latest idea eventually fell flat.
