"None of us are the owners of football. It is not FIFA's to sell." UEFA doesn't mince words, and right now, they're directing that straight at Gianni Infantino.
The FIFA president is reportedly pushing to market a stake in the World Cup to private investors — creating a new company that would oversee top competitions including the World Cup and Club World Cup. Joshua Kushner is among those being considered as investors. President Trump has apparently been read in on the idea too. Infantino himself could personally pocket tens of millions of dollars if the deal goes through.
The Times broke the story. UEFA went nuclear in response.
UEFA draws a line in the sand
"This crosses a line that football's governing institutions should never cross," UEFA said, calling on national associations, leagues, clubs, players, supporters, and governments to treat this with the same seriousness. That's a wide coalition being summoned — and deliberately so. UEFA isn't just objecting to the deal. They're building a political case against it before it can get off the ground.
The transparency issue is central to their objection. Nobody outside Infantino's circle knows exactly who benefits financially, or how much. That opacity alone should concern anyone who cares about how the game is run.
The boycott call
With the 2030 World Cup set for Portugal, Spain, and Morocco, journalists at The Athletic are now openly urging the world's best players to refuse to participate if this deal goes through. Richard Deitsch put it bluntly: "What if the best players in the world simply said: we refuse to play under this scenario."
Adam Crafton, The Athletic's lead soccer reporter, framed it as a defining moment: "We're about to find out once and for all if the rest of football views Infantino as a convenient cover for all the stuff they want to do but don't have the courage to do... or if they'll finally find some guts and bring him down."
The names being floated for a potential boycott — Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Jude Bellingham — would make a 2030 World Cup without them a commercial disaster. That's precisely the leverage. Any broadcaster or sponsor pricing up 2030 rights right now has a new risk factor to build in.
The deal hasn't been approved. But the fact it's even being seriously discussed tells you everything about where Infantino thinks his power sits — and how far he's willing to push it.
