FIFA drops plan to sell stake in World Cup rights to private investors

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has announced that the organisation is abandoning its plan to sell a 20% stake in the commercial rights to football World Cups — men's, women's, youth and club competitions — to private investors for $4.2 billion (roughly 89 billion Czech crowns).

"After carefully weighing all the positions, we concluded that this project has provoked such a divided reaction that, regardless of the level of support it has, it no longer serves the purpose for which it was originally conceived," Infantino said. He added that FIFA's mission has always been to unite and develop football, and that this was the reasoning behind the decision to scrap the proposal.

FIFA unveiled its plans to sell the stake on Tuesday. Under the proposal, investors would have acquired a 20% share in a subsidiary of the organisation. According to The Times, people close to US President Donald Trump — with whom Infantino is known to share a close friendship — were reportedly involved in drawing up the plan.

The initiative was openly opposed by the European, South American and Asian football confederations. UEFA went furthest of all: on Thursday, after coordinating a common position among all 55 member federations, the organisation announced it would boycott the World Cups should FIFA go ahead with its plans.

Infantino had earlier promised national football associations a payment of $40 million each if they backed the contentious initiative by September 19. However, the plan to further commercialise football met with fierce resistance.

"In the coming days and weeks, I want to bring all stakeholders back together around the shared interests of our game and continue developing football everywhere, especially in the countries that need our support the most," Infantino said in his statement on Friday.

FIFA had justified the initiative by arguing that proceeds from the sale of the rights would go towards developing football worldwide. However, Infantino's close adviser, American Carlos Cordeiro, who resigned in protest over the plan, said FIFA already holds billions in financial reserves and has no need for such a deal.

Around Prague, based on reporting by sport.cz