Fifa scraps controversial investment plan

**Pete Ross** (0:00)
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.
I'm Pete Ross, and in the early hours of Saturday 1st August these are our main stories. Fifa scraps its controversial plan to sell stakes in its competitions to private investors after global outrage. And the head of a tech company hacked by a rogue AI agent calls for greater accountability. Also in this podcast, a discovery in the Amazon rainforest sheds new light on ancient indigenous civilisations, and...

**Cyril Grutter** (0:35)
We found one case where a capuchin monkey adopted a little marmoset monkey. Or there was a case of a macaque monkey who made friends with a chicken.

**Pete Ross** (0:47)
The unlikely friendships forged in the animal world.
It's nearly two weeks since the men's World Cup final, but it seems football's world governing body, Fifa, has never left the news. In a dramatic development, Fifa's president Gianni Infantino says he's scrapping controversial plans to sell off stakes in the World Cup and other competitions to private investors. Following widespread opposition from both within Fifa and from regional confederations, Mr Infantino said the proposal had created division within the sport. James Franey is a journalist with the New York Post newspaper. He's been speaking to Helena Humphrey.

**James Franey** (1:29)
This was a question of politics really killing this deal. The numbers simply didn't add up. When you had UEFA come out against the privatisation plan just yesterday, you had the spectacle where many big stars like Jude Bellingham, Kylian Mbappe wouldn't have been present at the next World Cup in 2030, which is being hosted, may I say, by Spain and Portugal as well as Morocco. So, it just wasn't workable.
As soon as UEFA came out with that statement, this plan was already on the rocks. And we got the confirmation earlier this afternoon that investors had pulled out, leaving Infantino with really nowhere to go, Helena.

**Helena Humphrey** (2:09)
James, tell us more about that. What did your sources tell you about how this collapsed, essentially?

**James Franey** (2:16)
Indeed. So, we spoke to many people across European soccer federations, Wall Street investors. This was really, as I've just said in my previous answer, a question of optics. No one would dispute that the game of football is all about making money. We know that from the Premier League. We know that from the UEFA Champions League. But the way that Fifa went about it is what basically killed this deal dead on arrival. The clubs, the federations, the fans.
It was just the global outcry against Infantino's plan with, may I say, his own number two saying he wasn't even aware of it. It just left him really with no choice just to fold as he did in this statement that he released. I think the question now is, what this means for Infantino's leadership of Fifa, can he go on or will there be some kind of leadership challenge at the next presidential election?

**Helena Humphrey** (3:12)
And what is the sense that you've been getting on that front as you've been speaking to different people about, you know, the level of confidence or discontent with his leadership in light of this?

**James Franey** (3:24)
As you've seen from the statements that come out from federations, this is almost universal. As I said in my first answer, you know, when UEFA came out with that statement that they weren't going to be present the next 2030 World Cup, it was really already game over, I would say.
You also had CONCACAF follow up with that saying, you know, even the US National Federation saying that this really wasn't what they were going to support. I don't know, frankly, based on my reporting, who could challenge Infantino at this point, but it's fair to say that his leadership is in crisis tonight. It's probably the darkest period in Fifa's 122-year history, given what's been going on. We'll have to see how this pans out, Helena.

**Pete Ross** (4:06)
New York Post journalist James Franey.
Now, for the latest on the growing clamour for stricter regulations on AI development, following further revelations that AI bots have acted autonomously. The boss of one of the companies recently hacked by an out-of-control bot says companies must be accountable for cyber attacks carried out by its creations. Hugging Face was breached two weeks ago by a rogue OpenAI bot that broke out of a test environment. His remarks come after Anthropic, the maker of the chat bot Claude, also admitted that its bot had attacked three companies in similar circumstances in recent months. These recent developments have led to much soul searching within the AI industry and calls from those high up within it, such as OpenAI boss Sam Altman, for tighter control. Callie Hayes is a BBC reporter based in San Francisco. I asked her whether there is now acceptance that new legislation may be needed.