"No one has the right to sell our sport." Sepp Blatter, 90 years old and with no shortage of his own controversies, managed to land the most direct punch on FIFA's latest scheme — a plan to sell off a chunk of the commercial rights to its biggest tournaments, including the Men's and Women's World Cups, to private investors.
The plan works like this: FIFA would create a new subsidiary called FFE, initially valued at $20 billion, which would consolidate the commercial rights to FIFA competitions. Private investors could acquire around 20 percent of the shares. All 211 FIFA member associations would receive smaller stakes they could keep or sell. FIFA retains majority ownership and claims it keeps control over scheduling and the rules of the game.
That last part is doing a lot of work, and not everyone is buying it.
A rare coalition of critics
It's not often that a former disgraced FIFA president, a sitting British Prime Minister, and UEFA end up reading from the same page. Blatter, on X, tied the scheme directly to Gianni Infantino's relationship with Donald Trump — pointing to reports in The Times that individuals connected to the U.S. administration are involved in the plans. "The close relationship between the FIFA president and the U.S. president has taken on a financial dimension that is causing considerable harm to soccer," he wrote.
Andy Burnham, newly installed as UK Prime Minister, went further on Instagram: "The World Cup isn't a product; it's the greatest competition in the world. It has never belonged to anyone so that it could be sold." Strong words, though whether any government can practically block a FIFA commercial restructuring is another question entirely.
UEFA had already gone on record before either of them. "The soul and leadership of soccer are not commodities," their statement read, taking a pointed shot at the "complete lack of transparency regarding who stands to profit financially." Italian UEFA Vice President Gabriele Gravina was more blunt in an interview with Ansa: "We're going too far."
What this actually means
The English FA told the BBC it wasn't informed of the plans before they went public. That detail matters — it suggests FIFA moved on this without buy-in from some of its most powerful constituents, which is either bold strategy or a serious miscalculation.
A $20 billion valuation on FFE tells you everything about the commercial ambition here. World Cup broadcast and sponsorship revenue is already enormous, and a structure like this opens the door to a completely different class of financial stakeholder — one whose interests don't necessarily align with the sport's competitive integrity or its grassroots foundations.
- FFE would consolidate rights to the Men's and Women's World Cups and the Club World Cup
- Private investors targeted for approximately 20% of shares
- FIFA claims it retains majority control over scheduling and rules
- All 211 member associations would receive smaller, sellable stakes
UEFA's opposition is the wildcard. They have leverage — without European clubs and national teams, there is no World Cup worth $20 billion. Whether they're prepared to use that leverage, or whether this ends in the usual FIFA compromise, is the real story now.
