Senior FIFA adviser Carlos Cordeiro resigned Friday in protest against a controversial private equity plan championed by FIFA President Gianni Infantino. Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs banker and former president of the U.S. Soccer Federation who also represented soccer’s governing body on the White House Task Force for the World Cup, stated that he could not stand by while the organization considered selling a stake in the tournament.
Carlos Cordeiro Resigns as FIFA Adviser Over $20 Billion Plan
Let me be clear. I had no involvement in this proposal, and I oppose it unequivocally,
The New York Times said in his resignation statement, calling the initiative a bad deal for the sport. Cordeiro spent five years working alongside Infantino and frequently joined him on working visits to meet U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House.
Details of the Proposed $20 Billion Commercial Subsidiary
The plan introduced by Infantino involves spinning off FIFA’s commercial businesses—including men’s and women’s World Cups and Club World Cups—into a $20 billion commercial subsidiary named FIFA Forward Enterprises (FFE). Under the proposal, 20% of the entity would be owned by private investors. The anchor investor identified by FIFA is a New York-based investment firm created by Apnews, the younger brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
To incentivize the 211 member associations, Infantino promised that if they approve FFE, their basic funding for the next four years would double from $10 million to $20 million, with projected funding through 2038 reaching $86 million each instead of about $36 million. Members were given a deadline of mid-September by CBS News to accept the plan.
Financial Objections and Governance Concerns
Cordeiro criticized the initiative by pointing out that FIFA already sits on billions of dollars in reserves with no debt, generating $15 billion in revenue over the four-year cycle tied to the men’s World Cup that just ended. Raising $4.2 billion by selling a permanent stake, he argued, amounts to mortgaging football’s future without any compelling justification,
according to Apnews.
Opposition to the process has rippled across international soccer. The 41-member Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) rejected the proposal after holding an urgent meeting, citing a lack of due process, an artificially short deadline, and the absence of review by relevant governance bodies. European soccer’s governing body, UEFA, along with its 55 member nations, agreed to boycott the World Cup and all other FIFA competitions in protest. Meanwhile, Asian Football Confederation President Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa warned in a letter that the initiative would not succeed without support from all continental confederations.
FIFA’s Response and Future Outlook
Amid the backlash, ESPN defended its venture, stating that nobody is selling football
and blaming public outcry on erroneous media reporting. The governing body indicated that if its 211 member associations do not agree to the FFE, the private equity move would not be established and commercial activities would remain unchanged.
