FIFA chief Gianni Infantino faces criticism from three confederations over $20B subsidiary plan

Three of football’s most powerful confederations have turned on FIFA President Gianni Infantino, releasing a joint letter condemning his plan to spin off the organization’s primary revenue streams into a new subsidiary. UEFA, CONCACAF, and the AFC collectively represent the vast majority of global football’s commercial weight, and their unified opposition effectively killed the proposal within days of its announcement. The target of their ire: the FIFA Forward Enterprise, a proposed subsidiary that would have packaged FIFA’s core revenue-generating operations into a single entity valued at roughly $20 billion, then sold a 20-21% minority stake to private investors. What the letter actually said The joint letter from UEFA, CONCACAF, and the AFC zeroed in on what the three bodies viewed as fundamental governance failures. The criticism centered on a perceived lack of transparency in how the FFE was developed, an absence of due process in how it was presented to member associations, and insufficient oversight mechanisms to ensure accountability once private capital entered the picture. The timing matters. The letter arrived within roughly a week of Infantino unveiling the FFE concept ...