Post by Sports World (@sportsworld)

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has scrapped his proposal to sell stakes in the World Cup after widespread backlash, including from within global soccer's governing body, and a threatened boycott by European Nations (UEFA). Subsequently the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) also came out in opposition to the proposal.

Infantino had proposed spinning off FIFA's commercial businesses -- including World Cups and Club World Cups for men and women -- into a $20 billion subsidiary with 20% owned by private investors.

The "anchor investor," described by FIFA, is a New York-based investment firm created by Joshua Kushner, the younger brother of Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.

But in a statement late Friday (America timezone), Infantino said the "proposal will not proceed."

"Having listened carefully to all the views, it has become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place," he said.

Two senior FIFA officials criticized Infantino's World Cup plan earlier on the same Friday with one resigning as a presidential adviser and a second saying staff were deceived by the project that must not go ahead.

"Moving forward, my intent is to bring all interested parties back together in the coming days and weeks in the spirit of shared interest in our game, and with the objective to continue growing football everywhere, particularly in those countries that mostly need our support," Infantino added in his statement.

#Sports #Football #FIFA

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