Between 28 July and 1 August, the biggest financial offering of Infantino’s presidency was pitched, opposed and abandoned. In its place stands an open leadership crisis and the possibility of a confederation revolt six months out from a scheduled presidential election in Rabat.
The deal was ambitious. FIFA proposed to spin the World Cup, broadcasting, sponsorships, ticketing and hospitality into a new subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise, valued at roughly $20 billion, and to sell around 20 per cent to outside investors for $4.2 billion.
Every member association would then have received a total of $40m before the 2030 World Cup, built from a basic allocation rising from $8m to $20m plus a $20m “Fast Forward” top-up, according to the confidential document analysed by L’Équipe. The initial $20m tranche was tied to a 19 September deadline for federations to sign up.
Five days of pushback
The reaction was immediate. On 28 July UEFA said football “is not FIFA’s to sell” and accused the governing body of “crossing a line”. Two days later UEFA’s 55 member associations voted to boycott FIFA competitions if the plan proceeded, and CONCACAF and the AFC lined up behind them. Between them the three confederations account for 136 of FIFA’s 211 members.
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Inside FIFA the wall gave way at the same speed. Senior adviser Carlos Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs banker close to Infantino, resigned on 31 July. Chief operating officer Kevin Lamour said staff had been “deceived” about the project. In the early hours of 1 August, Infantino withdrew it.
The mutiny that followed
The withdrawal has not calmed anything. FIFA vice-president Sandor Csanyi later cut ties with Infantino, citing Lamour’s departure as the “final straw”, and UEFA, CONCACAF and the AFC are now discussing a no-confidence vote before the March 2027 election.
Under FIFA statutes, 43 of the 211 members can force an extraordinary Congress within three months by written request. Reuters could find no previous instance in FIFA’s 122-year history of its Congress holding a vote of no confidence in a sitting president.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, who has ruled out standing himself, said he expects a challenger to emerge before the 18 November nomination deadline.
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“There are two options. One option is that he realises that he doesn’t have the support,” Ceferin said.
“And the second option that he goes to the elections in March, but in that case, I think he will have a candidate against him.”
Confederations do not control how their members vote; each of FIFA’s 211 associations casts its own ballot. But the loss of three continental leaderships strips Infantino of the coalition his re-election campaign was built on, and the $40m sweetener was the point.
Narrow this gap
Infantino used a Caribbean Football Union visit at the weekend to argue that FIFA’s mission is exactly what the collapsed plan would have delivered.
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“We want to grow football in every one of our 211 countries in the world,” he told a FIFA video interview released after the trip.
“Some, unfortunately, don’t need and they don’t want that others grow, but we need to narrow this gap between the big, big countries and all the others.”
Nominations for the March 2027 election close on 18 November.
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