Infantino's World Cup sell-off plan is dead

Editorial note: This story is based on a single report from Foot Mercato. We'll update when a second outlet corroborates.

The plan that didn't survive contact with reality

The proposal, as reported by Foot Mercato, would have effectively allowed private investors a stake in the commercial machinery surrounding the World Cup — one of the most valuable sporting properties on the planet. The precise structure was never made fully public — FIFA preferred quiet.

It didn't go quietly. The backlash was significant enough to force a full reversal, with Infantino now having abandoned the project entirely.

A rare defeat for Infantino

FIFA's president has navigated some turbulent waters since taking over from Sepp Blatter in 2016 — the expanded 48-team World Cup, the Club World Cup overhaul, the Saudi deals — and he has generally come out the other side with what he wanted. This is different. A plan floated, opposed, and dropped is a political sequence Infantino is not used to.

Who led the opposition isn't detailed in Foot Mercato's reporting, and no other major outlet has yet corroborated the story. The exact timeline of the reversal is also unclear. Worth flagging: until a second source picks this up, treat the specifics with appropriate caution.

What it means for 2026

The 2026 World Cup — hosted across the United States, Canada and Mexico — is already the most commercially ambitious tournament in FIFA history. Infantino's private-investment plan was presumably designed to accelerate that further, unlocking capital ahead of a tournament that FIFA has been building its entire medium-term financial strategy around.

With that route now closed off, FIFA will need to pursue its commercial ambitions through more conventional channels: broadcast deals, sponsorship packages, licensing. Less exciting for investors, perhaps — but considerably less explosive for the member federations who apparently made their feelings known.

Infantino did not look like a man who had planned to back down.