Four reasons why Fifa's World Cup plan never stacked up

What the report says

BBC Sport Football reports that documents seen by the BBC shed light on FIFA’s abandoned proposal to part-privatise the World Cup through a new entity, Fifa Forward Enterprise. The slides, circulated to FIFA members this week, were intended to justify a plan linked to Gianni Infantino that would have shifted major commercial functions such as ticketing, broadcasting, licensing and sponsorship away from FIFA’s current non-profit structure.

According to the BBC, the presentation tried to support the idea by comparing FIFA’s revenue with that of leagues and sports such as the NFL and Major League Baseball, but the reasoning appeared shaky because the World Cup is staged only every four years and football’s revenues are spread across many national and club competitions. The documents also suggested higher ticket prices, more aggressive media-rights monetisation and a possible push toward paywalled coverage, raising questions about access for fans.

The BBC says the plan also left key financial details unresolved, including how an “annual licence payment” would work and how much money would actually flow back to FIFA after an initial $4.2bn stake sale. That upfront sum was meant to fund a $20m payment to each of FIFA’s 211 member associations, which would have been asked to vote on the proposal.

The report adds that the timetable for investor access and bids showed the scheme was already advanced, with Thrive Eternal, led by Joshua Kushner, named as a lead investor. The proposal appears to have collapsed within days, underscoring continuing scrutiny over FIFA’s commercial direction and control of the World Cup.