Fifa says 'nobody selling football' as it presses ahead with investment plan

FIFA has moved forward with its proposal to establish a commercial subsidiary for its premier tournaments, despite pushback from several continental bodies. The organization’s leadership said the consultation process will continue after claiming it was disrupted by inaccurate media coverage. European football’s 55 member associations voted on Thursday to boycott future World Cups if the plan proceeds. Concacaf, which oversees the sport in North and Central America, reported that its 41 member associations also “rejected” the proposal. In a statement, FIFA declared: “Our planned consultation process was disrupted by incorrect media reports. We volition proceed with this consultation process to guarantee that each MA has the quality to explicit its ballot based connected facts.” The body added, “Nobody is selling football,” insisting the initiative is purely about generating revenue through outside investment. FIFA intends to create a commercial arm to manage its flagship events, including the World Cup, allowing external investors to acquire stakes. It said it would “invite 3rd parties to marque minority, parties to marque minority, non-controlling investments” in a new entity called Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE). The measure requires approval by a vote of FIFA’s 211 members. President Gianni Infantino needs 106 affirmative votes for the initiative to advance. UEFA and Concacaf together represent 96 associations, which have signaled they will likely oppose the plan. In a release issued Friday morning, FIFA stated: “We respect the feedback and interest aired in nationalist and reaffirm our commitment to an open and antiauthoritarian consultation.” The statement continued: “FFE has been projected solely to guarantee that each FIFA Member Associations (MAs) person the accidental to instrumentality meaningful ownership of the commercialized accidental of shot in their respective countries, and that this does not travel astatine the outgo of either the tone oregon the governance of FIFA oregon shot itself.”