AFC joins global backlash against Fifa's private investment plan

The Asian Football Confederation said it stood in solidarity with Uefa and Concacaf against Fifa’s plan to sell stakes in a new commercial subsidiary that could be valued at $20 billion. The proposal would allow outside investors to buy as much as 20% of the vehicle, which would run the World Cup and other Fifa events, putting governance, revenue and decision-making at the center of a widening fight inside world football.

The AFC’s intervention pushed the backlash beyond Europe and North America and made it harder for Fifa to frame the dispute as a regional complaint. The confederation said it was “disappointed” and said it had not been given advance notice or a chance to object, echoing the criticism already voiced by Concacaf and European officials over the scale and secrecy of the plan.

Uefa escalated the confrontation by calling an emergency meeting of its 55 member associations on July 30 and then voting unanimously to boycott all Fifa competitions, including the World Cup, if the plan went ahead. That vote turned opposition from a warning into a collective threat, with the most powerful European national associations signaling they were prepared to walk away from Fifa’s flagship tournament.

The dispute has also sharpened a decades-old power struggle between Fifa and Europe over control of the sport. Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s private equity plan drew criticism because opponents feared it would commercialize football further and hand too much influence to private investors over the world game’s most lucrative properties.

At the center of the fight is who controls the money and who gets to decide how it is spent. A $20 billion subsidiary backed by outside capital would give investors a stake in competitions that have traditionally been governed by Fifa and its confederations, raising questions about how revenue would be distributed across continents and whether commercial partners would gain a say in strategic decisions.

With the AFC now aligned with Uefa and Concacaf, Fifa is facing resistance from three of the sport’s six continental confederations. That leaves Infantino under pressure from Asia as well as Europe and North America, and turns a financing proposal into a direct challenge over how much authority Fifa can assert over tournaments that define global football.