"The World Cup Should Not Be For Sale": Growing Political Anger Over FIFA Sell Off Plan

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has given FIFA members until September to accept the plans or lose funding. (Alamy)

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There is growing cross-party anger in British politics over a highly controversial plan by the head of the world's most senior football body to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors.

The shadow culture secretary and head of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Football have both told PoliticsHome that Gianni Infantino should no longer lead FIFA.

Earlier this week, The Financial Times reported that FIFA President Infantino wants to sell off stakes in its competitions via associates of US President Donald Trump. According to the report, the move would be led by Joshua Kushner, brother of Jared Kushner, who is married to Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, and could raise $20bn from private investors.

The story escalated on Wednesday when Infantino wrote to all 211 member associations of FIFA, presenting them with an ultimatum of accepting the proposals and each receiving $40m in additional funding by September as a result, or failing to offer support and receiving instead recieving a significantly smaller amount.

UEFA, which represents football in Europe, has reacted furiously to the proposals, warning that "FIFA cannot continue to use our sport to enrich themselves and their friends".

In its latest statement on Wednesday, UEFA said that "having held discussions with many stakeholders across the game, UEFA knows there is significant and growing opposition to FIFA's scheme. FIFA cannot continue to use our sport to enrich themselves and their friends.

"We can grow the game correctly. It’s time to prioritise associations, clubs, leagues, players and fans.”

UEFA member nations are set to meet this week to discuss how to respond to the move, including the possibility of a European boycott of the World Cup.

On Tuesday night, Prime Minister Andy Burnham, an avid football fan, publicly criticised the Infantino plan, putting the UK government on a collision course with the world's most powerful footballing body.

In a statement, he said: "Football does not belong to investors. It belongs to the people who fill the stands and who stand on the touchline week in, week out, rain or shine.

"The World Cup is not a product. It is the greatest competition in world sport, and it was never anyone's to sell. Dress the deal up however you like. Once you have sold a piece of it, you have sold out.

"Football belongs to the fans. It always has, and it always will."

Figures across the political spectrum have joined the chorus of outrage on Wednesday.

Caroline Dinenage, Conservative MP and chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, likened the Infantino plan to the "ill-advised" attempt by elite clubs in 2021 to set up a breakaway European Super League, in which teams would have been guaranteed spots regardless of domestic performance. The plan quickly fell apart following widespread backlash among fans and senior figures in the game.

"These plans worry me, and I think they set the future of international football on a trajectory that fans will find deeply troubling," said Dinenage, who added that her committee would "certainly" discuss it when Parliament returns in September.

Richard Parker, Labour mayor of the West Midlands, told PoliticsHome the World Cup "doesn't belong to private investors" and praised the Prime Minister for his condemnation of FIFA, saying he was "absolutely right to speak out".

“Villa Park [home stadium of Aston Villa] hosted the World Cup in 1966, and in two years’ time it’ll be welcoming international football again for the Euros. So people here in the West Midlands have a real stake in this," said Parker.

"I’d say to Gianni Infantino: come to Birmingham. Stand on the Holte End on a matchday and see what football actually means to people. It’s families going to the game together. It’s a grandad taking his granddaughter to her first match. It’s local kids dreaming that one day they might pull on the shirt themselves."

The shadow culture secretary, Tory MP Nigel Huddleston, said he had lost confidence in Infantino to continue leading FIFA, saying that this episode is the latest example "that calls into question call into question his judgement and his ability to do the right job".

The FIFA President came under intense pressure during the recent tournament after it emerged that Trump had asked him to look again at a red card given to US player Folarin Balogun before FIFA decided to reverse the subsequent ban.

Clive Betts, Labour MP for Sheffield South East and chair of the APPG on Football, endorsed UEFA's "hard line stance" as the World Cup is reliant on participation by European countries.

"That's where the resources are, that's where the money is, and that's where the heart of the essence of the game is around the world," said Betts.

He also said he hoped that football bodies in the UK get fully behind UEFA, and like Huddlestone said, he no longer has confidence in Infantino to lead FIFA.