{"id":30900,"date":"2026-07-30T03:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T03:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/30900\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T03:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T03:24:14","slug":"brussels-rises-against-fifa-president-infantinos-plan-to-bring-in-private-investors-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/30900\/","title":{"rendered":"Brussels rises against FIFA President Infantino\u2019s plan to bring in private investors \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FIFA chief Gianni Infantino\u2019s close relationship with Trump has previously drawn criticism from members of the European Parliament. Earlier this month, 90 MEPs signed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/meps-fifa-gianni-infantino-russia-athletes-youth-world-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">two<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/meps-fifa-investigate-gianni-infantino-donald-trump-peace-prize\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">letters<\/a> challenging the organization over actions they said undermined the governing body\u2019s political neutrality. Three MEPs, when asked about the matter, said that Infantino should now answer questions before Parliament.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the plans are true, Infantino has to explain himself,\u201d German Green MEP Rasmus Andresen said. \u201cWe should organise a hearing with ECON and CULT involved,\u201d he added, referring to Parliament\u2019s Economic and Monetary Affairs and Culture and Education committees. Bogdan Zdrojewski, the European Parliament\u2019s lead lawmaker on the European Sport Model, also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/newsletter\/brussels-playbook\/the-airport-nobody-loves-until-it-closes\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">told<\/a> POLITICO Playbook that Infantino should also be invited to appear before lawmakers.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement to POLITICO, Renew MEP Barry Andrews and Volt lawmaker Nela Riehl, the chair of the Parliament\u2019s Culture and Education committee, said that they would introduce a proposal \u201cto request FIFA appear before a joint hearing in the European Parliament at the soonest possible date.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Under the proposal, FIFA would transfer its commercial rights and tournament operations to a new subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise. Private investors, led by Kushner\u2019s venture capital firm, would acquire roughly 20 percent of that company, while FIFA would retain control.<\/p>\n<p>Micallef added that the proposal raised \u201cimportant competition law considerations,\u201d which the Commission would investigate.<\/p>\n<p>To help win support from FIFA\u2019s member associations, Infantino paired the proposal with a substantial increase in development funding. If a majority approves the plan, each of the 211 member associations would be eligible for up to $20 million in one-time subsidies, on top of increased payments in the coming years. \u201cFootball is the world\u2019s most popular sport and an extraordinary engine of human and social development,\u201d Infantino said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FIFA chief Gianni Infantino\u2019s close relationship with Trump has previously drawn criticism from members of the European Parliament.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[4736,18,2469,898,381,4737,4738,12577,1937,16870,1857,87,9079],"class_list":["post-30900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brussels","tag-2026-fifa-world-cup","tag-brussels","tag-competition","tag-culture","tag-donald-trump","tag-gianni-infantino","tag-glenn-micallef","tag-jared-kushner","tag-meps","tag-rasmus-andresen","tag-sport","tag-united-states","tag-venture-capital"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/117006792564132298","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}