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FIFA is no longer hiding behind its nonprofit status while generating billions in revenue from the World Cup.
The global governing body announced Tuesday that it plans to create a commercial entity that could bring in billions of additional dollars each World Cup cycle.
FIFA estimated it made $15 billion off this summer’s World Cup—up from about $7.6 billion from the last World Cup cycle and 2022 tournament—and the new entity would seek to “unlock the full potential” of sponsorship and media-rights revenue for the men’s and women’s World Cups, as well as other FIFA tournaments.
FIFA said it plans to create a company called FIFA Forward Enterprise, a new commercial and events business arm that it would own and control. It estimates the move could bring up to an additional $20 million for each member country’s federation by 2030—plus more in subsequent World Cup cycles—and it intends to raise $4.2 billion from investors this year to fund that program. The entity has an initial valuation of $20 billion, FIFA said.
All of this would need approval from the majority of FIFA’s more than 200 member associations, the individual national soccer federations that make up its ranks.
FIFA’s announcement confirmed several reports earlier Tuesday morning about the entity.
The FFE would pool FIFA’s commercial side including broadcast rights, sponsorship, ticketing, and licensing along with “operational delivery” of the tournaments themselves. FIFA brought in megabank J.P. Morgan as part of the process, and venture capitalist Joshua Kushner’s holding company Thrive Eternal is the anticipated lead investor, FIFA said. Kushner, a minority owner of the Miami Heat and San Francisco Giants, is the younger brother of Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law. Former Liberty Media boss Greg Maffei is also involved as a “key commercial adviser,” according to the announcement.
FIFA said in its announcement that outside investors would not “play any operational role” and would have only a minority stake. All the money that doesn’t go to member associations would be “reinvested back into football worldwide,” FIFA said.
“Equally, they are investing in a subsidiary of FIFA, and not in FIFA itself,” the announcement reads. “For FIFA, nothing changes.”
Since Gianni Infantino took over as FIFA president in 2016 following the corruption scandal that rocked the organization, he has been relentless about growing revenue, including with the 2026 World Cup and strengthening FIFA’s relationships with Gulf nations. While UEFA and European federations have been heavily critical of his approach, particularly around ticket prices and his relationship with Trump, leaders of South America, Asia, and Africa’s confederations said they support his reelection. Each of FIFA’s member federations gets one vote.
“Every FIFA Member Association should have an opportunity to seek a fair share of the available funding to shape its own future, deciding for itself rather than relying on others,” Infantino said in a statement. “This is about the democratisation of football worldwide.”
The European federation, UEFA, released a statement Monday, saying the proposed entity “crosses a line that football’s governing institutions should never cross.”
“The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade – especially with zero transparency as to who gains financially,” UEFA said. “None of us are the owners of football. It is not FIFA’s to sell.”
A spokesperson for U.S. Soccer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The federation is taking the week off after the World Cup.
FIFA’s World Cup media rights are a huge question mark and revenue opportunity going into 2030.
Fox paid only $485 million for English-language rights to the 2026 tournament in the U.S. That turned out to be a steal, as the World Cup produced the highest non-NFL sports ratings in decades. Front Office Sports previously reported that bidding for the 2030 rights could start at $1 billion.
