FIFA president Gianni Infantino has scrapped his proposal to sell stakes in the World Cup after widespread backlash, including from within global soccer’s governing body, and a threatened boycott by European Nations.
Infantino has proposed spinning off FIFA’s commercial businesses — including World Cups and Club World Cups for men and women — into a $20 billion subsidiary with 20% owned by private investors.
The “anchor investor,” described by FIFA, is a New York-based investment firm created by Joshua Kushner, the younger brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
But in a statement late Friday, Infantino said the “proposal will not proceed.”
“Having listened carefully to all the views, it has become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place,” he said.
