- Immediate Past FIFA President Sepp Blatter Blasts World Cup Investment Plan, Says Football ‘Belongs to the People’
Immediate past FIFA President Sepp Blatter has strongly criticised FIFA’s proposal to sell minority stakes in a new commercial company that would manage the FIFA World Cup and other major competitions, insisting that football must remain a public heritage rather than a business venture for private investors.
The 90-year-old, who led world football’s governing body for 17 years before leaving office in 2015, described the proposal as a dangerous shift towards excessive commercialisation, warning that it could undermine the very principles on which the sport has been built.
FIFA recently unveiled plans to establish a new commercial subsidiary, known as FIFA Forward Enterprise, valued at approximately $20 billion. The governing body intends to retain majority ownership while offering up to 20 percent of the company to outside investors in a move expected to raise as much as $4.2 billion.
According to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, the initiative is designed to generate additional income that would be reinvested into football development programmes around the world while allowing FIFA to maintain full control over governance, competition formats and sporting regulations.
Blatter, however, believes the proposal risks changing the identity of football.
“Football belongs to no individual and to no institution. It belongs to the people,” he said.
He argued that transforming FIFA into a profit-driven corporate structure would strip the organisation of its core values and distance it from the communities that have sustained the game for more than a century.
“The FIFA World Cup is not a commercial asset that belongs to a handful of executives. It is part of the cultural heritage of world football. FIFA is the guardian of the World Cup, not its owner. There is a fundamental difference,” Blatter stated.
The former FIFA boss added that private investors seeking financial returns should not become beneficiaries of football’s biggest competition. Instead, he said, revenues generated by the World Cup should continue to support the sport at every level.
According to Blatter, the true foundations of football are its clubs, players, coaches, referees and supporters, while FIFA’s responsibility is to organise competitions, administer the game and redistribute income to develop football worldwide.
“The beneficiaries should be the game itself—from grassroots football to the highest international level—not outside investors seeking returns,” he stressed.
Blatter’s latest criticism adds to growing opposition to FIFA’s proposal. UEFA has already voiced strong concerns, arguing that the plan represents an unprecedented level of commercialisation and warning that football’s governing institutions should not be driven by private investment interests.
The disagreement also continues the long-running differences between Blatter and Infantino. Since leaving office, Blatter has repeatedly criticised several of FIFA’s major decisions under the current administration, including the expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams and the awarding of the 2034 FIFA World Cup to Saudi Arabia.
Despite the backlash, FIFA maintains that the proposed investment structure will strengthen the financial future of the global game. The organisation insists that all profits generated by the new commercial subsidiary will be reinvested into football development across its 211 member associations, while FIFA will continue to exercise full authority over governance and all sporting matters.
The proposal will now be presented to FIFA’s member associations for approval, with the outcome expected to shape the commercial future of world football for years to come.
