Fifa faces backlash over proposed World Cup sell-off

**Andrew Peach** (0:00)
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Andrew Peach, and at 15h GMT on Wednesday 29th July, these are our main stories. There's more backlash after FIFA's plans to sell stakes in its football competitions. Fighting resumes between the US and Iran, with 20 members of an Iraqi militia reported killed. Russia charges the founder of Telegram with facilitating terrorist activities.
Also in this podcast, the Hollywood star Jared Leto faces allegations of criminal sexual conduct by four women who were teenagers at the time. And we hear what happened at an equestrian centre that was caught up in the fires in southwest France.

**Chantal Isandou** (0:43)
All around the stables, everything is burned. In fact, the horses are very clever because they decided to go where people had been evacuated and it was a safe place.

**Andrew Peach** (0:57)
Let's start with a backlash sparked by Fifa's proposal to sell stakes in its major competitions, including the World Cup. As we reported in our earlier podcast, Fifa is arguing that the plan would allow all nations to share in the riches that can be created by football. But the European Football Association, UEFA, has described it as an attempt to sell football soul.
And the EU sports chief, Glenn Mickeleff, called it the relentless and corrosive commercialisation of the game. This was the reaction of David Bernstein, former chairman of the English Football Association and Manchester City.

**David Bernstein** (1:30)
Well, I think the whole thing is absolutely dreadful. It's totally unacceptable. The feel of cronyism, nepotism.
It sort of stinks, frankly. And I would certainly support UEFA, the FA, the prime minister and so on in their criticism.

**Andrew Peach** (1:44)
Let's get more on this from Mike McCarthy of BBC Sport.

**Mike McCarthy** (1:47)
Fifa wants to create a company that would take over the commercial side of its major competitions. The idea is that body would be responsible for things like TV rights, ticket sales, sponsorship for the men's and women's World Cup and the club World Cup as well. Fifa would then sell stakes in that company to private investors. It says doing that can generate billions of dollars, which can be shared among its members. And that money would in theory be used for football development projects around the world.

**Andrew Peach** (2:13)
It feels like everyone hates it, do they?

**Mike McCarthy** (2:16)
Well, as you mentioned, UEFA were first out of the blocks, saying that Fifa had crossed the line. They have since been joined by CONCACAF, which governs football in North America and the equivalent body in Asia, the AFC. They both criticised the lack of consultation that they've had about the plans. Certainly the fear from UEFA is if private investors were involved in the World Cup, they are likely to want more teams in the competition and perhaps the World Cup to take place more regularly than every four years, so it generates more money. The same would likely be true of the Club World Cup. And UEFA is clearly concerned about the impact that that would have on the value of their own competitions, such as the Champions League and the European Championship and the Football Canada in general as well.

**Andrew Peach** (2:55)
What's the likelihood of Fifa and Gianni Infantino in particular being able to get this through, even though there is such a level of criticism from other parts of the football world?

**Mike McCarthy** (3:03)
Yeah, well, UEFA have been the strongest critics, but they only represent about a quarter of Fifa's 211 members. The way voting in Fifa works, every country gets one vote, so France have the same voting power as the Faroe Islands and Brazil have just as much say as Botswana. Gianni Infantino is essentially offering a significant amount of money from the deal upfront, as you mentioned, to all Fifa members. So for many in Europe, an extra 40 million dollars in one-off capital is not a hugely significant amount of cash. But for many of the game's smaller footballing powers who don't enjoy the riches that we see in the European game, it is a very big deal. Now, for its part, UEFA is organising an emergency meeting later this week of its members. The suggestion has been made that if European nations were to threaten to boycott the World Cup, then that would destroy the value of the tournament for any potential shareholders of this new company. Now, that would be a huge escalation, but the situation hasn't reached that point yet.

**Andrew Peach** (3:57)
Mike McCarthy from BBC Sport. And there's more on this story on our YouTube channel. Just search for BBC News on YouTube. You'll find the Global News Podcast in the podcast section. There's a new story available every weekday.