Is the World Cup up for sale?

**Ed Butler** (0:01)
During the recent Football World Cup, some said that Donald Trump was getting too close for comfort.

**Donald Trump** (0:06)
And here it is, in the Oval Office, in the White House. Can I keep it for you?

**Ed Butler** (0:13)
But is FIFA's latest commercial sell-off plan a step too far?

**Tariq Panja** (0:17)
The plan is to sell off the most important property in global sports, the Men's World Cup.

**Ed Butler** (0:24)
Could this be civil war in football? That's World Business Report from the BBC. I'm Ed Butler, and today we're looking at football's big meltdown, the rich European governing body UEFA, seemingly at war with the global head Gianni Infantino. Also in the show, Peru is welcoming its first female president. And what does the latest sell-off at SpaceX say about the wider market wobbles across the AI tech sector?
Some of the theme music there of the recent FIFA Men's World Cup, which finished earlier this month in the United States, the president of the world football's governing body Gianni Infantino and President Donald Trump seemed to have developed something of a close relationship during the event, as well as awarding Donald Trump the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize back in December. Mr Infantino took the Men's World Cup trophy to show off at the Oval Office ahead of the tournament.

**Donald Trump** (1:39)
And here it is in the Oval Office, in the White House. Can I keep it? For you?

**Tariq Panja** (1:47)
Well, you can keep it.

**Samira Hussain** (1:49)
We're not giving it back.

**Ed Butler** (1:51)
This is, that's serious.

**Donald Trump** (1:52)
It fits well.

**Tariq Panja** (1:53)
It goes very well on the wall, right over there.

**Sam Fennig** (1:55)
We'll put it right below the angels.

**Ed Butler** (1:57)
Yeah, the 2026 World Cup tournament was a huge financial success for FIFA, world's football's governing body, despite the rouse over ticket pricing, the review of a US player's red card and much else besides. The final tally is yet to be counted, but it could have netted FIFA around 15 billion dollars. But this non-profit association of football associations around the world believes that it can make even more money right now. And today it has announced plans to create a new commercial subsidiary valued at 20 billion dollars. News that has not gone down very well everywhere. I've been speaking to Tariq Panjay. He's the global sports correspondent at the New York Times.

**Tariq Panja** (2:41)
The plan in the most basic form is to sell off, at least in part, the most important property in global sports, the Men's World Cup. And this comes, what, two weeks after the World Cup in the United States in 2026
And you can't help but see how these two things are linked. I think FIFA were forced to publish today because Martin Ziegler in The Times of London reveals that Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, his brother's fund, is going to be a lead investor should it go ahead. And when we're talking about these private equity companies, this is for about a 25% stake in FIFA's commercial business. Now, almost all of FIFA's commercial income really is from the Men's World Cup.

**Ed Butler** (3:29)
Right. I mean, that's a lot of money, as you say. Now, it's supposed to raise $4.2 billion and each federation around the world, the members of FIFA, stand to receive potentially $20 million each in one-off payments if they approve this plan of Infantino.

**Tariq Panja** (3:47)
FIFA is an association of associations and quite right. It's the members that essentially own FIFA, which let's not forget is a non-profit based in Zurich. But we also have to remember that a lot of these federations are not particularly significant football nations. The majority of them are not. There's 211 of them. And there is a calculation here that most of them will be seeing their eyes bulge with the sight of a $20 million check and would be willing to tick this off. And this has been the whole issue over FIFA and the structure that each country has one vote at FIFA. So you can think about a small Pacific island like Guam, who will have the equivalent, say, as Brazil five time champions and so on.
And the calculation is there's probably more of those than the others.

**Ed Butler** (4:38)
An awful lot of Guams are out there, all of whom would love $20 million.

**Tariq Panja** (4:42)
Right. The other big controversy over all of this for years, predating Gianni Infantino, is it's very hard to see exactly where all of the money goes. And this is a big concern. Potentially greater amounts of cash to be dispersed and the same light touch oversight. And what this does do potentially is solidify the position of Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president, who at the moment is the only candidate as he seeks re-election for another term, which should be his final term. Now, the question that hasn't been asked at all throughout all of this is, does FIFA really need the money? It is swimming in cash. Now, the World Cup that's just finished, could in revenue terms generate 15 billion dollars. That's a huge amount. That would be double the previous four year cycle that took in the Qatar World Cup, for example.