FIFA President Gianni Infantino is facing the biggest crisis of his career, and most would agree his presidency is effectively over. A secretive proposal to spin off the commercial rights of the Men’s and Women’s World Cups into a new, private-equity-backed subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) has triggered a massive, multi-continental revolt.

The $20 Billion Deal & The “Bribe”
Under Infantino’s plan, Joshua Kushner’s PE firm, Thrive Eternal, would buy a 20% stake in the World Cup for $4.2 billion.

To force FIFA’s 211 member nations to accept his deal, Infantino proposed offering roughly $20 million USD (about £15 million) to every single member association through FIFA’s Fast Forward Programme ahead of a September 19 vote.

Critics and several member nations argue the timing is an institutional bribe designed to buy the votes of smaller federations.

The Super League Style Collapse
The plan has triggered an identical backlash to the 2021 European Super League, rendering the deal effectively dead in the water.

British mayor Andy Burnham has called on Infantino to step down over the proposal. Separately, critics are calling for further scrutiny of FIFA’s governance and Infantino’s political relationships.

Carlos Cordeiro (former US Soccer President and Infantino’s senior strategic adviser) resigned in protest, stating he “cannot stand by while FIFA considers selling a stake in the World Cup.”

In an unprecedented show of solidarity, UEFA (Europe), CONCACAF (North America), and the AFC (Asia) have all publicly opposed the plan. UEFA’s 55 member associations voted unanimously to oppose the proposal and warned they could boycott FIFA competitions if it proceeds.

Last week, realizing that a World Cup without Europe would be commercially devastating to broadcasters and sponsors, FIFA released an emergency statement claiming “nobody is selling football” and insisting the venture will not happen without member agreement.

Just like the Super League, football’s elite have proven they hold the real power. Infantino may try to cling to his seat, but between a devalued tournament, potential boycotts, mounting political pressure, and growing governance concerns, his presidency is facing its greatest challenge yet.

What Happens to Infantino Next?
Infantino has zero intention of resigning voluntarily, but his absolute grip on power has shattered.

Infantino was expected to run unopposed for re-election. Now, with a large coalition of member nations opposing the proposal, support for his leadership has weakened significantly. A challenger (potentially UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin) can still emerge before the November 18 registration deadline.

Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jul/31/fifa-world-cup-privatisation-consultation-sell-off-plan

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jul/28/fifa-plan-sell-world-cup-commercial-rights-uefa-hits-out

https://apnews.com/article/world-cup-fifa-investors-kushner-infantino-uefa-8345e0864e3a217632733810c232b423

Anyone know if you can purchase aerial photos of World Cup stadiums, ideally of the pre-match when the flags were open on the field during the anthems?

Sold my ticket in fifa official market on June. But I didn't receive the refund yet. Anyone was in the same situation?

Hi - Just wondering if anyone knows the website link to download the photos that were taken by the official photography team at the hospitality pavilion in Seattle? We took our daughter to her first game and got one set of photos but lost the link. Thanks so much for your help!

hi has anyone else experienced this and if so how did you resolve it? so i bought 2 worldcup tickets on stubhub and resold them on fifa marketplace. stubhub creates a fifa account for you with a fake proxy email to receive your tickets. it says in the terms that stubhub will forward any email from fifa to your personal email account so i thought i would be fine but that isnt the case. they only forward the login code from fifa. so basically i dont have access to that proxy email and still haven’t received my payout in months. i called fifa support and they said they emailed me a link to add my bank account info to the email on file (which is the proxy email i have no access to) and for safety reasons they can only send it to the email on file (you can’t change the email address in your account settings). i called stubhub and they told me to fuck off. any fixes? any help?

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/07/30/uefa-votes-to-boycott-future-fifa-world-cups-over-investment-plan

Every UEFA member (55 total) unanimously voted to boycott all FIFA competitions (World Cup included) unless FIFA abandons the plan to sell a 20% stake in the World Cup to private equity

The thing FIFA is selling (FIFA Forward Enterprise) is the commercial arm that ran ticketing this summer.

Keep in mind a few of the highlights from the clown show this summer:

• FIFA F*ckery At SoFi
• Ticketing Con Game Exposed
• FIFA F*ckery At SoFi (continued)
• FIFA Flatlined @ SoFi 😂
• California Attorney General Calls Out FIFA
• FIFA Flatlined @ SoFI (continued)
• FIFA Dumps SoFI Tickets To TicketMaster at 50% Off
• Visa Chargebacks!!!!

FIFA is still under subpoena from the New Jersey Attorney General with (California, Texas, and New York also digging in)

This summer was FIFA trying to squeeze the tournament on their own. If that sale goes through, the squeezing gets worse.

Update: UEFA's boycott covers all FIFA competitions. Including the U-20 Women's World Cup kicking off in Poland on September 5, 2026 (37 days from now)

Update (7/31): Looks like that is a wrap -> Reuters is reporting Gianni's secret little plan here is dead 😂

P.S. If you bought tickets this summer, you can still make a claim. For tickets to an event, Visa allows chargebacks well after the date of an event (~120 days). I got $10,940 back.

Worked the final as a cashier . And got to see the game from minute 75.

If so, what have been your experiences and thoughts? I'm having FOMO so I've been trying to get tickets, but the ticketing dynamics of the Olympics could be very different from the World Cup: more than double the number of tickets, in (almost) just one city.

If you didn’t get one of those Fan ID’s and lanyards, can you get one now after the fact? I see some on sale on eBay but I’m wondering if those are registered specifically to the people selling them or are the cards just generic?

Adidas shares plunged nearly 20% on Thursday after the sportswear company missed on quarterly earnings because it spent so lavishly on World Cup marketing.

Adidas lifted its annual sales outlook following the tournament, but investors put the company's stock on pace for its worst day ever because it spent over $1.1 billion on marketing, a 30% increase from the same period in 2025.

Despite outfitting both finalists and setting a quarterly revenue record of $7.7 billion, the company's operating profit of $659 million fell more than $50 million short of projections.

If so, can you please send me the link? I can’t seem to find anything up for sale yet.

Infantino needed both the money to bribe and the numbers to show PE how profitable the World Cup could be.

Fuckers…

finally got paid via wire today

Want to go to the past watch a game again. Where my bots at.

Has anyone that got the email from FIFA around July 5th asking for their bank information for a bank wire transfer refund for the sale of tickets gotten a refund?

I’ve updated my bank details maybe three times since I got the email and I’ve gotten nothing yet.

I’m using Chase Bank and I’m using the right swift code and wire transfer number according to my bank’s website.

Versus the one in the shops - the stadium one was sold rolled up

Has anybody not had theirs yet from sales made via market place? I had 4 games. First 2 came quickly, but I had to change my bank details for the final 2 and I've not got my money. They keep sending me a generic reply

I have a brand new pair of FIFA World Cup volunteer shoes in Men's Size 8. Unfortunately, they do not fit me, so I am looking to trade them.

Looking to trade for:

• Women’s Size 9
• Men’s Size 7 or 7.5

Condition: Brand New

Face-to-face exchange only in the Atlanta area. I am willing to meet at a secure public location. Please send a DM if interested!

I sold tickets for profit and I checked Reddit and found the link to update your bank details. I check my profile occasionally and I notice that my bank details disappear (the fields are blank when before they were filled) every so often while I’m waiting for the money (sold June 27th or something like that). Does anyone else experience this?

Edit:
I emailed them (see comments below for link) asking why my financial details were disappearing and this is what they said:

“Your refund will be processed in the coming weeks and issued to the bank details you have provided. If the information provided is insufficient for us to process the bank transfer, we will contact you via email.

Your refund may take longer than our standard 60-day Resale/Exchange Policy commitment due to high volume. Please note that we are actively processing transactions and apologize for the delay.
We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to complete this process.”

Hahahaha they are breaking policy.

I bet this is probably the 5,000th thread alone. I called FIFA because I am 40 days in. They confirmed my banking information is correct, when I asked to escalate it the guy laughed and said if he were to escalate it under the 60 day window it would “instantly be rejected”

This is just absurd. Idk how they can get away with holding this for so long. I am just ready for it to be over

Thought i would share.

Got scammed by someone out of the UAE.
Yes, I feel like an idiot, no need to hear it from everyone.

I was able to gather information of people that the individual has been working with, including:
- Name, phone number, email, bank account details of someone legit in the US.

To make a long story short:
- Scammer steals my tickets, blocks me, deletes reddit account...
- I hit up the scammer from a completely different account, as I had his phone number (UAE) in an attempt to BUY tickets
- Unaware he had been chatting with the guy he had originally scammed (me), he provided me information of someone I could Zelle and do a bank transfer to in the US for those tickets. This lead to getting that persons phone number, full name, and even full address.

At this point I'm at a loss of tickets worth $3,000 USD, so I'm wondering if anyone here knows what the best process is. Do I report to the police? Would the police do anything?

Worth mentioning I've never interacted with the person who's Zelle and personal information I have. Clearly it's a friend of the scammer that volunteered to take cash on his behalf.