FIFA defends WC plan: 'Nobody is selling football'

FIFA defended its proposed World Cup private equity venture early Friday and declared that "nobody is selling football" following broad criticism of the plan across international soccer. FIFA blamed "erroneous reporting in the media" for the intense public outcry of its plan to sell stakes in soccer's biggest tournament to private equity investors.. "We respect the feedback and concern aired in public and reaffirm our commitment to an open and democratic consultation," FIFA said. "Our planned consultation process was disrupted by incorrect media reports. We will proceed with this consultation process to ensure that each member association has the ability to express its vote based on facts." The soccer governing body appeared to back off from establishing the private equity move -- what it calls the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) -- if the 211 member associations do not agree. "FIFA's commercial activities would remain unchanged. FFE would not be established. Nobody is selling football. This is not something FIFA would ever entertain," the statement said. European nations agreed Thursday to boycott the World Cup and all other FIFA competitions to protest president Gianni Infantino's plan. "UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions," the European soccer body said after an urgent online meeting of its 55 member nations. The next scheduled FIFA tournament is only weeks away in Europe-the Women's Under-20 World Cup hosted by Poland starting Sept. 5-and the four British federations comprise FIFA's only bidder to host the 2035 Women's World Cup. That decision is due Nov. 23. "Some things are simply too important to sell," UEFA said in a statement. "The FIFA World Cup belongs to football. It always will. And so long as Europe has a voice, it will never be for sale." The strategy meeting was called to counter FIFA President Infantino's offer of $20 million to each of FIFA's 211 global members, an offer that has to be accepted by mid-September. FIFA's latest statement asserted that "everyone has the right to express their opposition and to seek further clarification, but no single entity can claim to represent all 211 MAs around the world." Later Thursday, the 41-member Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) met and announced it rejected Infantino's plan. In a statement, CONCACAF said members "expressed deep concerns about the lack of due process surrounding the proposal, the artificially short deadline imposed, and the absence of any review or approval by the relevant FIFA governance bodies." It also questioned the need for outside investment "following the most profitable FIFA World Cup in history." Infantino's secret project was revealed Tuesday to spin off its commercial operations in the new $20 billion FFE subsidiary 20% owned by private investors. The core investor would be a New York investment firm created by Joshua Kushner, the brother of U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. Infantino wrote Tuesday to the 211 members -- already the effective owners of FIFA as a non-profit association under Swiss law -- that if they approve FFE their promised $10 million basic funding for the next four years will double to $20 million. He projected their FIFA funding through 2038 would be $86 million each, instead of about $36 million. Asia adds rare criticism of Infantino on a seismic day in soccer politics, a traditional bedrock of support in Asia for FIFA and Infantino had earlier Thursday been shaken. "FIFA's unilateral actions appear to undermine the very foundations of continental football," the Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa said in a letter to its 46 members of FIFA, warning of risks to their own competitions. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.