FIFA Chief Infantino Apologises Over Failed World Cup Plan
SEO Title: FIFA Chief Infantino Apologises Over Failed World Cup Plan
Meta Description: Gianni Infantino apologised at a FIFA Council meeting over his failed World Cup private-investor plan, which he says is now permanently withdrawn.
Slug: infantino-apologises-failed-fifa-world-cup-investment-plan
Category: Sports
Tags: breaking news, sports, football
Focus keyword: FIFA Infantino apology
Excerpt: FIFA president Gianni Infantino has apologised for his failed plan to open the World Cup to private investors, after a grilling at Thursday’s FIFA Council meeting in Zurich.
Featured image: stock/2026-10-16-infantino/infantino-2024.webp
Alt text (featured): FIFA president Gianni Infantino in 2024
Featured caption: FIFA president Gianni Infantino. (Photo: Gabe Amo via Wikimedia Commons, public domain)
Key Takeaways
- Gianni Infantino apologised for mistakes in the communication and consultation around the FIFA Forward Enterprise project.
- German FA chief Bernd Neuendorf said council members got “no satisfactory answers” at Thursday’s Zurich meeting.
- The plan to sell World Cup stakes to private investors is now “permanently withdrawn,” Infantino confirmed.
- Infantino, in charge since 2016, still plans to run for re-election next March despite calls to step down.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has apologised for his failed bid to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors, after facing sharp questioning from senior football officials at a closed-door council meeting in Zurich on Thursday.
The apology follows months of backlash against the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal, which Infantino announced in late July. The plan would have opened FIFA’s premium competitions — including the World Cup — to outside investment, but it collapsed after a revolt led by European governing body UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and CONCACAF.
“I apologized for the mistakes that we made in relation to the communication and consultation process related to the FIFA Forward Enterprise project,” Infantino said in a video released by FIFA, according to Agence France-Presse.
FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich, where the council met behind closed doors on Thursday. (Photo: MCaviglia via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)
But the apology did little to satisfy the council members who confronted him. Bernd Neuendorf, the president of the German Football Association and a member of the FIFA Council, said officials had pressed Infantino hard during the session.
“We asked a great many critical questions, but there were no satisfactory answers from my point of view,” Neuendorf said afterwards.
The FFE proposal had drawn widespread criticism from across the football world, with confederations and fan groups warning it could hand commercial control of the sport’s biggest tournament to outside investors. Faced with that opposition, Infantino formally abandoned the idea — and on Thursday he stressed it is gone for good, saying the initiative “has been permanently withdrawn and will not reappear in any form.”
The FIFA World Cup Trophy at the FIFA World Museum in Zurich. (Photo: Ank Kumar via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Infantino also noted that the FFE was only ever a proposal and never a completed deal, saying it was intended to let FIFA invest more in its member associations.
The controversy has nonetheless weakened his standing. Infantino has led FIFA since 2016 and says he will seek re-election next March, even as some figures in the game have called on him to step down over the episode. So far, no major challenger has emerged.
Meanwhile, FIFA has moved to reassure its member associations financially. The body confirmed plans for a $6.35-billion development fund for the 2026–2030 cycle, expected to be finalised at the council’s next meeting in December. Under the proposal, each of FIFA’s 211 member associations would receive $25 million, drawing partly on the organisation’s reserves after what it called a commercially successful 2026 World Cup.
The Infantino apology is unlikely to end the debate about FIFA’s governance. But for now, the man running world football has admitted the mistake — and closed the door on selling the World Cup.
Sources: Agence France-Presse via Geo News, Daily Sabah and eNCA; News18.
