This needs its own thread because its a massive issue that is going to create huge repercussions in the sport if it happens

EXCLUSIVE: Fifa's president Gianni Infantino is planning to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors under a scheme that could potentially earn him tens of millions of pounds.
Investor discussions held with figures close to the Trump administration, say sources.…

— Martyn Ziegler (@martynziegler) July 28, 2026

Selling stakes absolutely ruins the integrity of the game. It opens up more room for outside influence on match outcomes, more changes in match structure to create ad revenue and probably more demands on players to play to help generate money for the investors.

It sounds like even quite a few people within FIFA had no idea about and most of the federations didn't know about it. Now Infantino is doubling down by bribing nations with 40m if they sign up now vs 10m if they wait till after a deadline. He's 100% banking on the poor nations to push this through much like how he (and Sepp Blatter) stay in power.

Infantino tells FAs they have until 19 September to back the World Cup spinoff.
And if the majority backs him, the dissenting FAs will be left out in the cold without $40m - with the finances proposed now doubled by the FIFA chief.https://t.co/7oJnsVooWm

— Rob Harris (@RobHarris) July 29, 2026

UEFA condemned it this morning.

UEFA statement on The Times article: ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/ye1tjfWRCb

— UEFA (@UEFA) July 28, 2026

CONCACAF is much less convincing in their condemnation of it.

Quote:

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"Concacaf was only made aware of this matter through media reports and, subsequently, via a media release.

"We are deeply concerned by the lack of due process.

"We share the disappointment of many within our region and the game that this level of detail has been designed and shared publicly before any discussion with the relevant governance bodies and stakeholders has taken place.

"As leaders within football, we are the custodians of the game. Collectively, FIFA, the Confederations and every Member Association have a responsibility to always act in the best interests of the sport. Every decision we make must be guided by good governance, robust processes and long-term stewardship.

"This is the framework within which Concacaf operates. We trust that all within the FIFA family will act in the same manner."

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That simply sounds like they're mad they weren't consulted first rather than condemning it. The Asian Confederation has a similar response where it just sounds like they are unhappy that they haven't been consulted either.


We can only hope the backlash continues to grow.

Can he pull it off without UEFA?

We should be ready to just leave concacaf if they try to get greedy

PatAg said:

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We should be ready to just leave concacaf if they try to get greedy

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We should but I lack any confidence that we would.

Honestly, if UEFA and the US said "Do this and we're out", I really don't know that FIFA would push their luck. Have fun with that World Cup, bud.

Problem is USSF is broke as well. You know they want that 40m. We're already using private investors to pay Poch. Also it'd would probably be a lot of US private firms that buy these stakes who will probably bribe the USSF into agreeing with FIFA

Just at a quick glance (and without giving it much thought), I would think all you really need is UEFA and CONMEBOL to push hard against this. Yes, FIFA can push this through without them but I imagine UEFA and CONMEBOL have a little more unspoken power bc if they threaten to pull away, what kind of World Cup would you be left with without them?

YNWA.2013 said:

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Just at a quick glance (and without giving it much thought), I would think all you really need is UEFA and CONMEBOL to push hard against this. Yes, FIFA can push this through without them but I imagine UEFA and CONMEBOL have a little more unspoken power bc if they threaten to pull away, what kind of World Cup would you be left with without them?

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UEFA (Europe) 55
CAF (Africa) 54
AFC (Asia & Australia) 46
CONCACAF (North & Central America) 35
OFC (Oceania) 11
CONMEBOL (South America) 10

With 211 member nations and a simple majority of 106 needed to make changes, it would be hard for UEFA to stop whatever Infantino wants to do. Take his upcoming election, for example, all 54 member associations of CAF unanimously agreed during an April 2026 meeting in Vancouver to back Infantino for the 20272031 term and so did AFC. That's 100 votes right there and the main driving force on why Infantino's re-election to a 4th term is basically a foregone conclusion at this point.

UEFA would have to lobby hard to break up the African and Asian voting blocks which will be very hard to do as I imagine (and others have pointed out) that the $40M bribe is going to sound very enticing to the smaller member nations

wangus12 said:

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Selling stakes absolutely ruins the integrity of the game. It opens up more room for outside influence on match outcomes, more changes in match structure to create ad revenue and probably more demands on players to play to help generate money for the investors.

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While I agree with the sentiment, the integrity of the game is already lost. The amount of corruption that has been and continues to be ingrained within FIFA is astonishing. This does not surprise me at all, the greed is overwhelming.

There is zero integrity in FIFA

The one thing that may help UEFA (because they really are the only ones able to stand up to all of this) is that if they were to break away from FIFA, they then no longer have to abide by FIFA rules. This includes not only national teams, but club teams as well. Clubs are required to release players for international duty by FIFA rules.

If UEFA were to break away, they'd no longer have to recognize doing that and releasing international players for duty. All UEFA would have to do is switch their international calendar to be different than FIFA and then the clubs refuse to release players for international breaks. Euro players would be unaffected, but then you have the rest of the world not having access to their best players. Sure it'll piss the players off, but the clubs pay them the big money while the international teams don't.

UEFA should leave FIFA, and hopefully the U.S. and other countries follow suit. FIFA has become too greedy, time to let them implode.

wangus12 said:

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The one thing that may help UEFA (because they really are the only ones able to stand up to all of this) is that if they were to break away from FIFA, they then no longer have to abide by FIFA rules. This includes not only national teams, but club teams as well. Clubs are required to release players for international duty by FIFA rules.

If UEFA were to break away, they'd no longer have to recognize doing that and releasing international players for duty. All UEFA would have to do is switch their international calendar to be different than FIFA and then the clubs refuse to release players for international breaks. Euro players would be unaffected, but then you have the rest of the world not having access to their best players. Sure it'll piss the players off, but the clubs pay them the big money while the international teams don't.

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I would love to watch that flex play out. Imagine FIFA trying to hold a world cup without any of the top pros that play in Europe.

If UEFA boycotted it would effectively destroy the value that FIFA is trying to sell. Who is going to invest in a product that lost more than half of its quality? I would argue that the Euros would become at least as valuable as a UEFAless World Cup.

My guess though is that UEFA makes a threat to boycott…maybe even follows through temporarily…before FIFA gives them a larger piece of the pie to shut them up and get them on board.

This is actually real: pic.twitter.com/BaXWt9Fe07

— Martyn Ziegler (@martynziegler) July 30, 2026

Showstopper said:

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PatAg said:

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We should be ready to just leave concacaf if they try to get greedy

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One of the investors mentioned is named Kushner. Not to throw up the Politics board Bat Signal, but we (or the 'we' in charge anyway) may be the problem.

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I guess by WE i mean the USSF, not the government

This is just words until the next fifa event. Nobody will care if a U17 doesn't get played. The next biggie is the WWC in '27. Let's see if UEFA is willing to stick to their guns in a year. Or if FIFA is willing to hold a WWC without the best teams.

Woohoo! No Belgium!

If there is a split and the US stays, it may dramatically affect the pay for the USWNT Team since they agreed to the splitting off the World Cup money. If FIFA loses sponsors and the payouts dramatically drop the women will lose a lot of money.

The IOC could really stir the pot by talking about trying to work with UEFA to flip Euro schedule and lift the age restrictions for the men's Olympic tournament

Now it's a game of chicken.
The biggest problem with FIFA outside the corruption, is that the smaller money starved countries outnumber the powerhouse European and South American ones. So he will have the votes, question will be, does he care more about the sport and his legacy, or how much he makes off of this?

UEFA gets CONMEBOL and CONCACAF and makes an expanded Euros and or effectively a World Cup. Could actually do traditional Euros and the new "World Cup" so that you have a major tournament every two years.

This proposal is DOA without UEFA. Infantino won't go down without a fight. If this doesn't happen, he'll be done as FIFA dictator, I mean Czar, I mean President.

The world cup is dead in the water if UEFA drops out. If anyone wasnt convinced that FIFA and Infantino were corrupt before this dropped the evidence is staring you directly in the face now

Concacaf votes unanimously against Infantino's proposal. This is starting to look pretty dead.

🚨 BREAKING: All 41 Concacaf members have rejected Gianni Infantino's FIFA Forward Enterprise plans.

"Concacaf is a confederation united by the love of our game, where football comes first. Guided by this philosophy over the past ten years we have built, from the ground up, an… pic.twitter.com/oBhtm0DLCU

— Ben Jacobs (@JacobsBen) July 30, 2026

Let's not be too hasty...
hear me out we can work it and get a WC trophy out of this


^notice the emoji

Between UEFA and CONCACAF that's 96 votes. CONMEBOL would be another 10. That would make 106.

There are 211 national associations. That's enough to kill this if CONMEBOL says the magic phrase "we unanimously reject…"

Asia said they were concerned with the short time frame and encouraged their members to study carefully. The only one that has been really positive so far has been Africa.

I don't mean to be a jerk, I realize Africa countries like the idea of "money now" but their confederation isn't exactly driving the rights money despite their large number of members.

So what happens when Africa, Asia and Oceania block vote in favor and Argentina decides to give the world a great big FU and break and vote for it?

Between UEFA (55) and CONCACAF (35), they have 90 votes. Not all 41 CONCACAF members are FIFA members (it's very confusing). But if CONMEBOL comes aboard, that's 100 with it's 10 members. You would then need all of Oceania to vote that way as well to put you at 111.

If CONMEBOL comes out with the same boycott as UEFA, that will effectively kill the proposal. And hopefully peg Infantino down a few notches.