MELBOURNE: FIFA’s push to open the World Cup to private equity marks a dramatic attempt to reshape the commercial landscape of global soccer, while opening a new front in a long-running battle with Europe for power and control over the massive wealth generated by the sport.
The global governing body led by Gianni Infantino plans to create a US$20 billion subsidiary to run the World Cup and other FIFA events, offering stakes of up to 20% to external investors in a move condemned by UEFA as putting the game's "soul" up for sale.
Infantino, who is up for reelection as head of FIFA next year, cast the move as pushing global "democratisation" in the sport by broadening access to its financial largesse.
The proposal offers member associations access to US$20 million in immediate funding for special projects and further grants of US$20 million and more in subsequent four-year cycles, a huge sweetener for small and emerging soccer nations who rely on FIFA for most of their income.
EUROPEAN RICHES
FIFA already generates billions of dollars in revenue from broadcasting rights, sponsorship and other commercial deals, and is expected to top its US$13 billion target for the four-year cycle which finished with the recent World Cup and included last year's Club World Cup.
Yet those figures pale in comparison with the riches generated by European football.
UEFA reported in February that its elite club competitions generated €4.4 billion (US$5 billion) in the 2024/25 season alone.
Football competitions across the continent generated more than €40 billion in the same period, with the "Big Five" of the Premier League, Bundesliga, LaLiga, Serie A, and Ligue 1 accounting for just over half of that amount, Deloitte said in its annual review of football finance.
FIFA has long battled to shift football's financial centre of gravity away from Europe, which once dominated the governing body's membership and control over its crown jewel, the World Cup.
Former FIFA president João Havelange campaigned successfully to expand the World Cup and give greater influence to Africa, Asia and Latin America through a political coalition of smaller nations.
BIGGER COMPETITIONS
Successive FIFA bosses have carried Brazilian Havelange's legacy further, with Infantino the latest to boost the recent World Cup -- which grew to 48 nations this year from 32.
Infantino said a 64-team World Cup was an idea up for discussion last week after South American football governing body CONMEBOL pushed for an expansion for the centenary edition in 2030.
The proposal drew a scathing response from La Liga President Javier Tebas, who said FIFA was "destroying" football in an interview with Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Infantino has previously tried to commercialise FIFA assets by bringing in external investment. A plan for an expanded Club World Cup brought by a consortium led by SoftBank in 2018 never got off the ground after a fierce backlash from UEFA.
But as with Havelange and his successor Sepp Blatter, Infantino will rely on majority support among FIFA's 211 member associations, rather than Europe, to push his private equity agenda.
"If you're a country from the global south, whose football competitions are not getting the current streams of gold that, let's say, the European competitions are getting, this might be very enticing," Eric Windholz, an associate professor at Monash University's law faculty, told Reuters on Wednesday.
None of soccer's major continental blocs have joined UEFA in voicing opposition.
The Asian Football Confederation, which includes 47 member associations, was unaware of the plan until FIFA's public announcement.
