World’s Biggest Football Game Being Sold
On July 29, FIFA announced they were creating a new company to host the World Cup game, and then selling most of that company to private investors. Immediately, the Union of European Football Association (UEFA) threatened to boycott the World Cup, hearing this news.
“Some things are simply too important to sell. The FIFA World Cup belongs to football. It always will. And so long as Europe has a voice, it will never be for sale,” a public statement from the UEFA read.
The new company created is called FIFA Forward Enterprises (FFE), and FIFA is looking to sell 21% of it to investors. FIFA wants to raise a total of $4.2 billion by selling a part of the World Cup.
For this plan to go into action, the majority of the 211 member associations and the 37 member FIFA council must approve of it. However, the UEFA strongly made its opinion clear regarding this proposal. In a public statement, they completely rejected the proposal and refused to let it happen.
The UEFA stated that the World Cup is a football legacy that many players over many years have built. Their hard work and love for the sport is the foundation of the competition. The competition has been around for nearly 100 years and isn’t just an opportunity for investors to earn money. They argued if the world cup is sold, the competition will be changed to benefit those shareholders, instead of actually being about the game. Football is a worldwide sport that many people participate in, whether it’s playing it or watching it.
UEFA also stated that FIFA was being irresponsible in creating this change in secrecy rather than openly discussing it with its associations around the world.
“The World Cup cannot be treated as an investment product,” it said. “It is one of football’s greatest sporting legacies. It has been built over generations by players, national teams and supporters across every continent. No part of it should ever be surrendered to private investors. The World Cup is not for sale,” they stated.
After this public statement, FIFA faced major backlash from the public, especially many other associations. FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino argued back in saying the influx of private equity would increase global soccer development. But despite this argument, many associations still strongly disapproved of the plan.
The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) also accused FIFA of not discussing the proposal openly with them.
“Concacaf was only made aware of this matter through media reports and, subsequently, via a media release. We are deeply concerned by the lack of due process,” a statement from CONCACAF read.
The Asian Football Association (AFC) was also questioning why this decision wasn’t discussed by them.
Because of all this backlash, FIFA did ultimately decide to scrap this idea of football as the top teams in the world are from the UEFA. [“scrap this idea considering UEFA is threatening… which would lead to the collapse of football…” — run-on and overstated; break it up and soften “collapse of football.”]
Sources:
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/31/nx-s1-5915820/fifa-world-cup-gianni-infantino
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7476012/2026/07/30/fifa-world-cup-boycott-sale-uefa/
