FIFA members back Infantino after $20B commercial venture collapses

FIFA’s President Gianni Infantino still has his job, his supporters, and apparently his ambitions intact. That’s the takeaway from an emergency meeting in Morocco, where football’s global governing body apologized for a botched commercial proposal and received a vote of confidence from senior members in return. What FIFA Forward Enterprise actually was FIFA proposed creating a commercial subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise, or FFE, valued at $20 billion. The plan was floated at the end of July 2026. The structure would have allowed private investors to acquire up to 20% minority stakes in the entity, with Josh Kushner-linked parties among those reportedly involved in early discussions. The pitch to member federations was a significant one: each of the 211 associations stood to receive a one-time payment of $20 million, funded by the initiative’s goal of raising up to $4.2 billion in outside capital. In English: FIFA wanted to partially privatize its commercial operations, hand out cash to every national federation to sweeten the deal, and retain control of the governing structure on paper. UEFA and a number of football federations pushed back hard. The concern was a familiar ...