Gianni Infantino now has to explain his abandoned World Cup sell-off inside the room. FIFA has confirmed that a full review of the withdrawn FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal will be put in front of its 37-member Council when the body next meets, in October.
The concession followed a public rebuke from Danish FA president Jesper Moller, who told reporters he had been stonewalled at a Legal Committee session where he expected the scheme to be dissected.
“I naturally used the meeting to ask a number of critical questions about the process, which I still consider to have been deeply problematic,” Moller said.
“I am surprised that FIFA Forward Enterprise has not been discussed by the Legal Committee, which is precisely the body that should be consulted on legal matters concerning FIFA.”
FIFA’s statement, first carried by Reuters, was terse.
“As previously communicated, a review of the withdrawn FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal will be presented to the FIFA Council,” the governing body said.
What FFE was, and why it collapsed
FFE was a plan to spin FIFA’s commercial machine, including World Cup rights, into a subsidiary and sell a slice of it to private investors. FIFA pitched the $20bn vehicle with a 20% minority stake going to outside money, a structure it said would raise up to $4.2bn. The named anchor investor was Thrive Eternal, the venture firm run by Joshua Kushner, brother of Jared Kushner.
The plan lasted only days in public. Infantino unveiled it in late July and pulled it that same week after UEFA’s members threatened to boycott future FIFA events until the scheme was withdrawn.
Read also: Mbappé praises Mourinho: 'One of the smartest people I've ever met'
UEFA’s parallel legal track
Killing off the deal has not killed off the fallout. UEFA has moved in a US federal court in Florida to obtain documents and testimony from FIFA entities based there, groundwork for potential criminal proceedings in Switzerland against Infantino for what UEFA has framed as disloyal management. The core allegation is that the FIFA president negotiated the sell-off with a small circle of advisers and investors while bypassing the Council, the confederations and the member associations.
UEFA and CONCACAF have both called for changes to FIFA’s leadership structure, and several European associations, including the Danish, French, Austrian and Greek federations, have publicly withdrawn support for Infantino’s re-election bid. Under FIFA’s constitution, however, none of that translates automatically into votes: the Congress runs on one member, one vote, and each of the 211 associations casts its own ballot.
The Rabat clock
The Council meeting is the first formal moment where Infantino will have to face his own board on FFE. It also sits six months out from the FIFA presidential election, scheduled for 18 March 2027 in Rabat, where the Swiss-Italian is seeking a fourth term.
Moller has said the Danish federation will use the time to line up an alternative candidate.
Read also: Goalkeeper turns down chance to become king and stays with ninth-tier English club
“The meeting confirmed that FIFA cannot rebuild its credibility under the current leadership. The time has come for a change of president at FIFA,” he told reporters.
“I will continue working closely with my European colleagues to find a candidate who can command a majority. There is no trust in Infantino and FIFA’s leadership.”
Read also: Thomas Tuchel could bring back forgotten England defender after four years away
