FIFA president Gianni Infantino suffered a serious blow on Friday as his senior advisor quit over the plan to sell a stake in the business operations of the World Cup, calling it a “bad deal” for the sport.
“It is a bad deal for FIFA’s member associations, a bad deal for football, and a bad deal for the long-term future of the game,” wrote Carlos Cordeiro, a former head of the US Soccer Federation, in a resignation statement issued Friday.
Cordeiro’s departure is effective immediately, and it marks a striking public rupture at the top of world football’s governing body. The proposal that triggered his exit involves the creation of a new commercial subsidiary, FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), which would take over running the World Cup and FIFA’s other major events.
Under the plan, FIFA would sell a stake of up to 20% of the new entity to outside investors, in a deal reportedly valued at around $20 billion and expected to raise roughly $4.2 billion. According to reports, the venture would be financially backed by Joshua Kushner, brother of Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump.
Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs banker with an MBA from Harvard Business School, was hand-picked by Infantino in 2021 to serve as senior advisor for global strategy and governance, with a mandate to help FIFA “modernise” its regulatory framework and grow the game worldwide.
He went on to become one of Infantino’s closest lieutenants, regularly accompanying him to the White House, and was more recently named senior advisor to the White House Task Force on the 2026 World Cup.
In his resignation statement, Cordeiro was emphatic that he had no hand in drawing up the equity sale plan. “Let me be clear: I had no involvement in this proposal, and I oppose it unequivocally,” he said, adding, “I cannot stand by while FIFA considers selling a stake in the World Cup.”
Drawing on decades in finance, he argued the numbers simply didn’t add up. “Football has been central to my life, and after more than 35 years in banking, I understand both the value of this asset and the consequences of giving part of it away,” he said.
“Against that backdrop, selling a permanent stake in football’s most valuable asset to raise $4.2 billion makes little sense. It is mortgaging football’s future without any compelling justification.”
His statement also appeared aimed at rallying internal opposition, as he called on other senior FIFA staff to speak out against the plan.
The resignation lands at an awkward moment for Infantino, who has increasingly leaned on outside financial engineering to fund FIFA’s expansion, including the newly bloated Club World Cup, while facing scrutiny over the governing body’s growing closeness to the Trump administration and to politically connected investors.
Cordeiro’s exit, from a trusted advisor with deep banking credentials and direct access to the White House, is likely to embolden critics within FIFA’s member associations who have already voiced unease over ceding commercial control of the World Cup to private capital.
FIFA has not yet issued a detailed public response to Cordeiro’s resignation or his specific criticisms of the FFE proposal.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Carlos Cordeiro’s abrupt resignation as Gianni Infantino’s senior advisor exposes a serious rift at the top of FIFA over a plan to sell up to 20% of a new $20 billion commercial entity controlling the World Cup, a deal Cordeiro, a veteran banker, blasted as financially unsound and a threat to football’s long-term future.
FIFA is weighing giving private investors a permanent stake in its most valuable asset, and one of its most trusted insiders just walked away rather than be associated with it.
