Fifa plan to sell stakes in competitions sparks backlash

Kevin Lamour, FIFA’s chief operating officer, said staff had been deceived over Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell stakes in competitions tied to the World Cup and was prepared to pay for speaking out. “If that means I lose my job, so be it,” Lamour said, in a rare public break with the FIFA president’s private-investor push.

FIFA said on July 28 that the proposal would sell up to a 20 per cent stake in a new commercial entity linked to its competitions and could expand football development funding to more than $10 billion if member associations approve it. ESPN said Infantino set a Sept. 19 deadline for FIFA’s 211 member federations to back the plan, with each association eligible for up to $40 million in funding and an initial $20 million available from 2027.

The backlash spread quickly across the sport’s power centers. UEFA criticised the proposal and, with Aleksander Čeferin at the helm, called an emergency meeting of its 55 member associations to discuss a possible boycott. CONCACAF rejected the plan outright, and opposition widened across football’s regional bodies after confederations said they had been blindsided by the move.

The controversy has also spilled into FIFA’s own hierarchy. Carlos Cordeiro resigned as senior adviser as the row intensified, while Lamour remained in place despite acknowledging that speaking out could cost him his post. BBC Sport said Infantino has led FIFA since February 2016, giving the plan the imprint of a presidency that has already spent more than a decade pushing the game deeper into commercial territory.

That is what makes the dispute sharper than a routine governance fight. Selling an equity stake in World Cup-related rights would give outside investors a claim on one of sport’s most valuable revenue streams, raising questions about transparency, control and who ultimately benefits when tournament income is distributed to FIFA’s 211 member associations. Some reports have linked the proposal to associates of Donald Trump, adding a political dimension to a fight that could decide whether the World Cup remains a member-run event or becomes a partly privatised asset.