{"id":218944,"date":"2026-07-31T18:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T18:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/infantino-faces-fifa-revolt-after-adviser-quits-over-plan-to-sell-world-cup-stake-to-private-equity-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T18:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T18:20:11","slug":"infantino-faces-fifa-revolt-after-adviser-quits-over-plan-to-sell-world-cup-stake-to-private-equity-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/infantino-faces-fifa-revolt-after-adviser-quits-over-plan-to-sell-world-cup-stake-to-private-equity-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Infantino faces FIFA revolt after adviser quits over plan to sell World Cup stake to private equity – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

news Alerts
There are no new alerts at this time
GENEVA \u2014 Pressure on FIFA President Gianni Infantino and his divisive plan to sell World Cup profits to private equity grew Friday as his senior adviser who sat on a White House panel resigned and Asia\u2019s soccer body joined Europe and North America in opposing it.<\/a>
An expanding crisis for soccer\u2019s governing body reached into Infantino\u2019s longtime inner circle when his pick to represent FIFA on the White House Task Force for the World Cup walked away, calling the Joshua Kushner-backed $20 billion commercial subsidiary plan \u201ca bad deal for football.\u201d
Carlos Cordeiro is a former Goldman Sachs banker and officially Infantino\u2019s senior adviser, yet revealed he was not involved in the secretive investment plan that has rocked the sport since media reports revealed it Tuesday.
\u201cI cannot stand by while FIFA considers selling a stake in the World Cup,\u201d Cordeiro said in a statement formally resigning, just hours after FIFA insisted in a statement: \u201cNobody is selling football.\u201d
Cordeiro\u2019s exit \u2014 and call for other senior staff to speak out \u2014 intensified scrutiny on Infantino one day after European soccer body UEFA threatened to boycott all FIFA games and events until the plan is dropped. North America\u2019s CONCACAF also rejected Infantino\u2019s offer of one-off $20 million payments to each member federation by a mid-September deadline.
Cordeiro often joined Infantino on working visits to meet U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in recent years, and took part in meetings of the administration\u2019s World Cup task force led by Andrew Guiliani.
\u201cLet me be clear. I had no involvement in this proposal, and I oppose it unequivocally,\u201d said Cordeiro, the former U.S. Soccer Federation president.
On another seismic day in soccer politics, Asia\u2019s soccer body that has been a key ally in Infantino\u2019s 11-year presidency opposed the investor plan and said FIFA must urgently review its management style.
The Asian Football Confederation said it \u201cstands in solidarity\u201d with UEFA and CONCACAF, the first two continental bodies to oppose Infantino, whose combined 90 FIFA member countries near a majority of the 211 global total.
\u201cFootball should never have been placed in such a position,\u201d said the Asian soccer body, which counts 46 of FIFA\u2019s 211 members.
Infantino has proposed spinning off FIFA\u2019s commercial businesses \u2014 including World Cups and Club World Cups for men and women \u2014 into a $20 billion subsidiary with 20% owned by private investors.
The \u201canchor investor,\u201d described by FIFA, is a New York-based investment firm created by Joshua Kushner, the younger brother of Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
\u201c(T)he proposed (FIFA Forward Enterprise) cannot realistically achieve the necessary broad consensus and unity required to move forward\u201d and must be reconsidered, the AFC said.
The statement did not name Infantino yet criticized FIFA for problems beyond the content of the private equity plan plus failing to consult about the secretive proposal.
\u201cRather, it has exposed fundamental weaknesses in FIFA\u2019s consultation and decision-making processes that must now be addressed,\u201d said the AFC, whose longtime president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa narrowly lost the FIFA presidential election to Infantino in 2016.
\u201cAccordingly, the AFC calls upon FIFA to undertake an urgent review of its governance and decision-making framework,\u201d said the organization based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Infantino had seemed \u2014 11 days ago after the World Cup final in East Rutherford, New Jersey \u2014 to have a clear path to being reelected unopposed for a fourth and final term in office through 2031.
FIFA had briefed during the tournament that Infantino had letters of support from about 200 members, despite a furor over letting United States forward Folarin Balogun play against Belgium even though he received a red card in his previous game. Trump acknowledged asking Infantino to review Balogun\u2019s mandatory one-game ban.
FIFA has set a Nov. 18 deadline for potential candidates to declare in a presidential vote of the 211 members scheduled next March in Rabat, Morocco.
The Asian statement came hours after FIFA blamed the media and doubled down on pursuing the project, which now seems to have a majority of the 211 in opposition.
\u201cOur planned consultation process was disrupted by incorrect media reports,\u201d FIFA said in a statement early Friday. \u201cWe will proceed with this consultation process to ensure that each (member) has the ability to express its vote based on facts.\u201d
The next FIFA event that would be targeted by the threatened European boycott is within weeks \u2014 the Women\u2019s Under-20 World Cup hosted by Poland from Sept. 5. The four British federations comprise FIFA\u2019s only bidder to host the 2035 Women\u2019s World Cup. That decision is due Nov. 23.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeGENEVA \u2014 Pressure on FIFA President Gianni Infantino and his divisive plan to sell World Cup profits to private equity grew Friday as his senior adviser who sat on a White House panel resigned and Asia\u2019s soccer body joined Europe and North America in opposing it.An expanding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":218945,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}