A senior adviser to FIFA President Gianni Infantino quit on Friday in protest at plans to sell a stake in the World Cup as European football threatened a boycott and regional confederations united in opposition to the proposal.
Carlos Cordeiro resigned with immediate effect, calling the plan “a bad deal for football”.
Cordeiro, who was appointed in 2021 by Infantino to help shape FIFA’s future, said the body was “mortgaging football’s future without any compelling justification.
“It is a bad deal for FIFA’s Member Associations, a bad deal for football, and a bad deal for the long-term future of the game,” Cordeiro said in a statement.
A former banker and ex-U.S. Soccer Federation vice president, Cordeiro added that he had no involvement in the proposal and opposed it “unequivocally”.
Meanwhile, FIFA’s Chief Operating Officer Kevin Lamour said staff were “deceived” by Infantino, describing the proposal as a “project of one person”.
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“Our mission … is to serve football. Not to serve the personal interests of a person who, unfortunately, believes he embodies FIFA when he is supposed to be at its service,” he wrote in a statement shared with the Associated Press.
Despite the mounting opposition, Switzerland-based FIFA said “incorrect media reports” this week had disrupted its planned consultation process but that it would press on with putting the proposal in front of its 211 national football associations.
“We will proceed with this consultation process to ensure that each MA (Member Association) can express its vote based on facts,” it said in a statement issued in the middle of the European night.
FIFA has proposed creating a $20-billion subsidiary, FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), to run the World Cup and its other events, with a stake of up to 20% to be offered to external investors.
Thrive Eternal, a fund run by Thrive Capital, founded by Joshua Kushner, was expected to lead the proposed investor group, FIFA said. Joshua is the brother of Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.
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