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FIFA wants to sell a slice of the World Cup and UEFA says football is not for sale
FIFA plans to create FIFA Forward Enterprise and raise up to 4.2 billion dollars from private investors. UEFA has rejected it, Brussels is watching, and Portugal co-hosts the 2030 World Cup.
Some football arguments get settled on the pitch. Others get settled in rooms full of lawyers. This one is firmly the second kind, and it still matters to anyone who loves the game.
What is FIFA Forward Enterprise?
It is a new company, wholly owned by FIFA, that gathers the governing body’s commercial rights in one place. The plan is to open part of that company to private investors and raise up to 4.2 billion dollars in the process. The stakes on offer would be minority and non-controlling, and the structure was initially valued at around 20 billion dollars. Translated: FIFA still calls the shots, but it acquires partners looking over the accounts of the most valuable thing it owns, the World Cup.
UEFA hated it. European football’s governing body accused the Gianni Infantino administration of crossing a red line by opening the sport’s commercial assets to private capital, and summed up its position in a sentence that is hard to read two ways: football is not for sale. Europe’s bodies called an emergency meeting with their 55 member associations to work out what happens next.
Why does this matter for Portugal?
Because the 2030 World Cup is a home tournament. Portugal hosts it alongside Spain and Morocco, with matches also going to Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Any change to how FIFA manages and sells the product moves revenue, ticketing, broadcast rights and whatever filters down to federations and clubs. Four years still sounds far away, but the money rules are being written now.
Brussels has weighed in too. Glenn Micallef, the European commissioner responsible for sport, warned against touching European sport and said the European Commission would examine the proposals with the greatest care, within its competences. He added that the plan raises competition law questions, which is rarely a harmless sentence when it comes out of Brussels.
We followed everything that happened at this year’s World Cup and the start of the new Primeira Liga season. Official positions from European football are published on the UEFA website.
By Vasco Almada
Image: Wikimedia Commons
