Infantino scraps World Cup sell-off plan after backlash grows

Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell stakes in the World Cup collapsed after a five-day revolt from Europe and other football power blocs forced Fifa to retreat. Fifa had announced on Tuesday, 28 July 2026, that it wanted to create a commercial subsidiary to run its main events, including the World Cup, and to sell stakes in those competitions to private investors. By Thursday, 30 July 2026, Uefa’s 55 member associations had voted at an emergency meeting to boycott World Cups if Fifa pressed ahead.

Uefa later said it and its national associations would not participate in FIFA competitions. The Football Association said it was "deeply concerned" about Fifa’s plans, while Concacaf, which governs football in North and Central America and the Caribbean, was also opposed. The resistance came from the bodies that would have been asked to accept a new commercial structure around the sport’s biggest event.

Fifa tried to calm the row by saying it would continue the consultation process and insisting that "nobody [was] selling football". Infantino said the scheme was only a "proposal" and "not an obligation". But the language did little to defuse the argument, because the fight had already become a governance test over who would shape the World Cup’s commercial future and who would decide whether outside investors could get a foothold in it.

The backlash deepened when FIFA chief operating officer Kevin Lamour said staff had been "deceived" by Infantino’s World Cup sell-off plan. The package had been presented as a $20 billion investment plan, and regional confederations were left blindsided. That left Infantino facing resistance from federations, confederations and national associations that could block any attempt to hand private investors a stake in football’s flagship competition.