FIFA has published an eight-page document defending its proposal to sell a stake in the World Cup to private investors, a plan that has left European football's governing body so alarmed it called an emergency meeting with its 55 member associations.

The document, released on Wednesday evening, sets out FIFA's reasoning for what would be a fundamental shift in how the World Cup is funded. According to Sky News, the stake on the table is worth roughly $4 billion, and a World Cup boycott is among the options being discussed by UEFA's members Sky News.

The idea of holding the emergency meeting was put forward on Tuesday, a UEFA official told Reuters Reuters. The Football Association, which runs the game in England, said it is "deeply concerned" about FIFA's plans BBC Sport. UEFA issued its own response even before FIFA had published the detail BBC Sport.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino released a video on Wednesday calling the proposals "an offer, not an obligation" and "a golden opportunity to turbocharge the development of the game globally" BBC Sport. FIFA has also offered $40 million to nations that back the plan BBC Sport.

At the heart of FIFA's argument is money, and where it goes. The document states that "too little of football's growing commercial value has reached the parts of the game that need it most" BBC Sport. FIFA pointed to Cape Verde, Curacao, Jordan, and Uzbekistan all qualifying for the World Cup for the first time as evidence that its current approach to growing the game is working — and, by implication, that more investment could widen that circle further.

FIFA also named Formula 1, La Liga, Ligue 1, and the Bundesliga as other sporting organisations that already use dedicated commercial operations to maximise revenue. The message is that football's global governing body wants to do what those bodies already do: bring in outside capital to run and sell the product more aggressively.

The concern from Europe is about control. FIFA stated that private investors would "absolutely not" have any influence over the World Cup itself BBC Sport. Whether that assurance satisfies UEFA and its members, several of whom run the wealthiest leagues in the world, is the question now hanging over the entire proposal.

For fans, the stakes are unusual. This is not a rule change you will see on the pitch. It is a fight about who owns the commercial rights to the biggest tournament in the sport, how much money flows to smaller nations, and whether private capital gets a seat at a table it has never occupied before. The next moves belong to UEFA's 55 members, and the tone of their response may shape whether this idea advances or stalls.