FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s future in doubt after private equity gamble backfires spectacularly

Gianni Infantino tried to sell off a piece of the World Cup to private equity. The World Cup, it turns out, did not want to be sold. The FIFA president’s ambitious plan to create a new commercial entity called FIFA Forward Enterprises, or FFE, collapsed on July 31 after just two days of public life. The proposal aimed to raise approximately $4.2 billion by selling a 20-21% stake in the entity to private investors, with Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital identified as the lead investor. The total revenue target was a staggering $20 billion. Now, instead of celebrating a financial masterstroke, Infantino is fending off calls for his resignation. The deal that died in 48 hours FFE would have managed the commercial rights to the World Cup, essentially packaging football’s crown jewel into a private equity-friendly structure. To sweeten the pot, each of FIFA’s 211 member associations was promised an immediate $20 million payout. That’s over $4 billion in cash dangled in front of national federations, many of which operate on shoestring budgets. The math was designed to make voting “yes” the path of least resistance, with a mid-September deadline to lock things down. UEFA, European football...