Football power struggle caused FIFA World Cup plan fallout, says Kushner

What the report says

United States investor Joshua Kushner has publicly addressed the controversy surrounding FIFA’s abandoned plan to open part of World Cup commercial rights to private investment, saying he and his firm did not fully grasp the politics of global football. According to Al Jazeera’s report, Kushner said Thrive Capital would not have become involved had it understood how the initiative would unfold.

The proposal, linked to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, centered on creating a commercial subsidiary that would manage certain rights tied to FIFA competitions and potentially raise billions for the governing body. FIFA said the plan was intended to direct more funding to poorer football nations, while critics argued it was assembled behind closed doors for the benefit of investors. UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin described it as an opaque deal and has accused Infantino of serious mismanagement.

The report says UEFA is now preparing a possible criminal complaint in Switzerland and has asked a New York judge for permission to seek documents and testimony from Kushner and Thrive. They are not expected to be defendants, and no wrongdoing has been alleged against them in the case described. The dispute highlights broader tensions over how football’s revenue is controlled and who should benefit from it.

Kushner, who also has a role in the record purchase of the Los Angeles Lakers, framed the original idea as an effort to spread investment more evenly across FIFA’s 211 member associations. Al Jazeera reported that the fallout has become part of a wider power struggle inside the sport’s governing structures.