UEFA is planning to commission an independent valuation of FIFA's World Cup commercial rights after concerns that Gianni Infantino agreed to sell the tournament's future profits to a private equity firm at below market rate. Europe's governing body remains unmoved by a written apology the FIFA president issued to all 211 member associations this week, and will continue pushing for his removal. The Guardian

The dispute centres on the Fifa Forward Enterprise plan — a proposal to sell a 21% stake in the World Cup and FIFA's other commercial assets to Thrive Capital, a US private equity firm led by Joshua Kushner, brother of Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. The price tag was $4.2 billion, based on a total valuation of $20 billion for FIFA's commercial assets. The plan lasted four days before being abandoned.

What killed it was a unified revolt. All 55 UEFA member associations threatened to boycott the World Cup and other tournaments, forcing FIFA into a U-turn. The Football Association joined the condemnation, and even FIFA's own senior leadership — secretary general Mattias Grafström, chief operating officer Kevin Lamour, and head of football development Arsène Wenger — criticised the sell-off internally.

The numbers explain the alarm. FIFA's revenues for the four-year cycle culminating in this summer's World Cup were $15 billion. Market analysts suggested the $20 billion valuation was low, particularly because the proposal appeared to contain no provisions preventing FIFA from expanding existing tournaments or creating new ones — which would logically increase the value of those commercial rights over time. The sales deck circulated to stakeholders last week contained no information about how the valuation was reached or any evidence of a competitive tender process.

UEFA has spoken to several market analysts about conducting an independent valuation, and a formal study is likely once the immediate battle over Infantino's future has settled. The organisation has also called for a thorough review of FIFA's governance and threatened legal action.

The abandoned plan would have more than doubled the development funds paid to each member association — from $8 million to $20 million each — through the 2027–30 World Cup commercial cycle, according to ESPN. That figure was the carrot. The stick was handing a slice of football's most valuable asset to a single private investor without an open market process.

This is not the first time Infantino has explored selling stakes in FIFA's competitions. In March 2018, he told a FIFA council meeting he was considering offers worth £25 billion for a stake in two new competitions, as reported by The Guardian. After the 2026 World Cup, Infantino publicly stated his aim to "unleash the commercial potential and opportunity that FIFA has," per FIFA's own website.

The women's game adds another layer of tension. The 2023 Women's World Cup was the first to break even, generating more than $570 million in revenue, as The Guardian reported. Critics have questioned whether privatising the men's tournament's profits would benefit the wider game or simply enrich a narrow set of stakeholders.

For fans, the row matters because the World Cup is football's crown jewel — the tournament that funds grassroots development, referee programmes, and national-team football across all 211 member associations. How much it is worth, and who gets to buy a piece of it, shapes what the game looks like for decades. UEFA's demand for an independent valuation is, at its core, a demand that the answer to those questions be arrived at in daylight.