FIFA to Open World Cup Sell-Off Papers to Council Members Only, Not Public

Photo: Beata Zawrzel/AP via Al Jazeera (file photo), FIFA President Gianni Infantino

FIFA will finally let its own council members see the papers behind its failed plan to sell off stakes in future World Cups, but the public will not get a look. The documents can only be viewed in person in Zurich, under strict rules, and only by the 37 members of the FIFA Council.

Al Jazeera reported that the move came late on Monday, the deadline European football's governing body UEFA had set for FIFA to explain the scheme and answer questions about how it was put together and who approved it.

The plan was called FIFA Forward Enterprise. In July, FIFA announced it would move the commercial rights for major tournaments, including the World Cup, into a new company and sell stakes in it to private investors. The backlash was swift and worldwide, and FIFA dropped the plan within days.

Since then, UEFA has kept pushing for answers. At a tense council meeting, FIFA President Gianni Infantino apologised for the proposal but gave no details about how it was formed. He asked council members to send their questions in writing.

Now FIFA Secretary General Mattias Grafstrom has written to council members inviting them to register within two weeks to view selected papers at FIFA headquarters in Zurich. Reuters reported that the documents will be available under specific conditions, and that the invitation covers key documents on the scrapped plan.

The catch is clear. This is not a public release. Council members cannot take the papers home, share them or publish them. They must turn up in person, under what FIFA calls strict review protocols to preserve confidentiality. It is also not yet clear exactly which documents will be shown.

That half step matters because of what comes next. UEFA is leading efforts to remove Infantino before or at the FIFA presidential election on 18 March in Rabat, Morocco. Infantino, who has led FIFA since 2016, is seeking a fourth term that would run to 2031. UEFA has also sent FIFA more than 100 questions, covering the sell-off plan, its funding and other governance issues.

The key facts at a glance:

• Plan: FIFA Forward Enterprise, to sell private stakes in World Cup commercial rights
• Dropped: July 2026, days after it was made public, after a worldwide backlash
• Who can view the papers: the 37 FIFA Council members only, not the public
• Where and how: in person at FIFA headquarters in Zurich, under strict confidentiality rules
• Deadline to register: within two weeks
• Next big date: FIFA presidential election, 18 March in Rabat

For football fans, the plain point is this. The most valuable prize in the sport, the World Cup itself, was nearly put into a company part owned by private investors, and months later the people who run the game still cannot see the full story. They get a supervised viewing in Zurich. Everyone else gets nothing.

It is the second big football governance story of the day for Asian readers, after the Asian Cup 2027 was moved to December 2027. And it lands in a busy week for sport, from Glenn Maxwell's retirement from international cricket to the wider tensions reshaping events across the region, as seen in the reported strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island.

Sources

• Al Jazeera: FIFA to share documents related to World Cup sell-off plan
• Reuters: Soccer, FIFA to grant access to documents from scrapped World Cup sell-off plan
• BBC Sport via Modern Ghana: Gianni Infantino, Fifa members given access to documents relating to failed World Cup privatisation plans

Watch for what council members say after their Zurich viewings, and whether UEFA pushes for a full public release before the March election.

#FIFA #WorldCup #Infantino #Football #SportsNews #BreakingNews #UEFA