Gianni Infantino apologizes and scraps plan to sell World Cup rights to outside investors

Gianni Infantino backed down Thursday on the most controversial project of his presidency. The FIFA chief apologized before the Council for the mistakes made in both the design and the communication of a plan to hand over part of the World Cup rights to outside investors, and confirmed that the initiative has been withdrawn for good. The proposal, known as FIFA Forward Enterprise, had sparked strong internal opposition and threatened to open an institutional crisis on the road to the 2026 World Cup.

• Infantino acknowledged management and communication errors in the plan to sell World Cup rights to outside investors.
• The FIFA Forward Enterprise project is officially scrapped.
• External lawyers addressed the Council but could not share details due to the ongoing legal case with UEFA in the United States.
• The Legal Committee will review disciplinary procedures after the Balogun case.
• FIFA will raise solidarity funding to 6.35 billion dollars for the 2027-2030 cycle.

The rights sale plan that put FIFA under pressure

The FFE project aimed to attract private capital to expand football's investment capacity worldwide. However, the lack of consensus and legal doubts turned the proposal into a political burden for Infantino. During his address, he admitted that the initiative only made sense if it had the genuine backing of the football world as a whole, something that never materialized.

The Council heard from external lawyers who outlined the legal background of the plan, but they could not go into detail because of the legal proceedings underway in the United States involving UEFA. The European confederation has remained one of the harshest critics of Infantino's leadership, and the power struggle between the two institutions continues to shape the international football agenda.

The president of the governing body apologized for the errors committed in both the management and the communication of the initiative.

The Folarin Balogun case forces a disciplinary review

The meeting also addressed the controversial decision by the Disciplinary Committee to suspend the one-match ban of United States forward Folarin Balogun during the last World Cup. That move allowed him to play in the round of 16 against Belgium and triggered an intense debate about the consistency of punishments at football's biggest tournament.

Infantino agreed that the Legal Committee will carry out a full review of disciplinary procedures. The findings will be presented at the next Council meeting in December, with the aim of preventing similar situations in the future.

More solidarity funding after the 2026 World Cup

Despite the political storm, Infantino offered a more positive financial outlook. Thanks to strong commercial results and the surplus generated by the 2026 tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada, FIFA will allocate 6.35 billion dollars to its solidarity program for the 2027-2030 cycle, up from 5.6 billion in the 2023-2026 period.

Infantino stressed that the money is aimed at national federations and the development of football around the world, a message designed to strengthen his position among smaller associations ahead of the electoral process.

November 18 marks a key date for Infantino's future

The next major date on the FIFA calendar is November 18, the deadline for submitting candidacies for the elections in March next year. The big question is whether UEFA, the confederation most critical of the current president, will finally put forward an alternative to Infantino's seemingly safe candidacy.

The withdrawal of the rights sale project and the public apology are seen as an attempt to reduce tensions before that election process, in which Infantino remains, for now, the leading candidate to extend his time at the helm of the organization.

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