It is a stew of inedible quality.  But eat it we are expected to do.  Consider the stomach-churning ingredients.  FIFA, an opaque organisation of mafia qualities that governs world football.  Add to the mix crawling-to-power President Gianni Infantino, a preposterous darling of authoritarian favour.  Mix in his cringeworthy, very public association with US President Donald Trump, peace prize and all.  And money. Money, money and some.  Will that contaminated mix set?

Not happy with the loot secured from the just concluded Men’s World Cup, stained by criminally high-ticket sales and returns from the secondary market, Infantino was onto another venture.  This one, largely kept from most of the organisational cadres of FIFA and virtually everybody else, would involve the creation of a private company intended, so the gauleiter-bureaucrats say, to make money to nourish the global game.  The media release from July 29 describes the creation of FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), a FIFA-owned subsidiary intended to consolidate the organisation’s “commercial and event operations”. 

The entity would have, if created, involve a portfolio of revenue spanning media rights, sponsorships, licensing, ticketing and hospitality packages, in addition to the actual running of the World Cup and club tournaments. 

The entity would have, if created, involve a portfolio of revenue spanning media rights, sponsorships, licensing, ticketing and hospitality packages, in addition to the actual running of the World Cup and club tournaments. 

Approval of this caper was to be facilitated through lavish bribes for all 211 FIFA Member Associations: an optional US$20 million per association “in exceptional and immediate funding for special projects from the new FIFA Fast Forward Programme (FFFP)”; US$20 million per association in Forward funding for 2027-2030, to increase by $US2 million for 2031-2034 and a further increase for 2025-2038 to US$24 million.

Some US$4.2 billion would be raised by the subsidiary to fund FFFP “based on an initial equity valuation of US$20 billion by carefully selecting long-term investors who will purchase minority, non-controlling interests in FFE.”  At this point, the sceptical mind quivers with suspicion, given that FIFA is effectively offering a share of 20% in the new entity to private investors.  FIFA makes little of this problem, going on to say that net returns from the subsidiary “will be reinvested back into footfall worldwide.”  

The media missive goes on to note Thrive Eternal as the selected capital holding company to lead the investor group for FFE, with Greg Maffei, former President and CEO of Liberty Media and current CEO of BANN Ventures acting as “a key commercial adviser” and facilitator for the next phase of establishing the subsidiary. 

What it omits to mention is a fundamental, and blighting factor: the figure behind Thrive Eternal is Joshua Kushner, brother of Jared Kushner, son-in-law of President........

© Middle East Monitor