European football’s governing body UEFA announced on Tuesday that it will boycott FIFA and all of its competitions, including the men’s and women’s World Cup, in response to a proposal that would allow private investors to purchase stakes in the tournament.
A New Commercial Model for Football's Showpiece
The plan, championed by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, envisions the creation of a new entity called FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) that would issue shares in the World Cup, turning the event into a commercial asset that could be bought and sold.
In a statement, UEFA condemned the proposal as a failure of leadership and an abdication of FIFA’s responsibility as the custodian of world football, arguing that the tournament belongs to the global football community, not to a handful of financiers.
If the boycott takes effect, traditional powerhouses such as England, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Belgium would sit out both the men’s and women’s World Cups, a move that would reverberate across the sport’s premier stages.
The organization stressed that domestic competitions, including the European Championships and the UEFA Champions League, will continue unabated, preserving the domestic calendar while the dispute over the World Cup’s future unfolds.
The controversy also brings into focus the upcoming 2030 World Cup, which is slated to be co‑hosted by Spain, Morocco and Portugal, and the 2027 Women’s World Cup, scheduled for Brazil, events that could be reshaped by the outcome of the dispute.
Thrive Eternal, a venture‑capital firm founded by Joshua Kushner, son‑in‑law of former U.S. President Donald Trump, is expected to spearhead the investor consortium that would back FFE should the proposal be approved.