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Sat, 01 Aug 2026

Sat, 01 Aug 2026 Faisal Islam: Four reasons why Fifa's World Cup plan never stacked up

The actual presentation of FIFA's plan to part-privatise the World Cup raises many more questions than it answers.

* Documents obtained by the BBC reveal that Fifa's plan to part-privatize the World Cup was based on flawed assumptions and would have led to high ticket prices, dynamic pricing, and pressure to put broadcasting behind a paywall.
* The plan was to create a new company called Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) which would be responsible for ticketing, broadcast, licensing, and sponsorship.
* Fifa's central argument was that football is under-monetized compared to other leagues, but the comparison chart used by Fifa was flawed as it did not take into account that the World Cup occurs every four years, not annually.
* The plan would have meant a transfer of responsibility and accountability from Fifa itself to a privately-backed company with majority ownership by Fifa's board members.
* The new entity, FFE, would have been responsible for expanding and optimizing media rights monetization, and maximizing the value of Fifa's intellectual property.
* The plan was to raise an initial $4.2bn investment which would be used to provide a one-off payment of $20m to each of the 211 member associations, as well as fund future investments.
* However, it is unclear how much money would have been paid back to Fifa in annual license payments, and whether FFE had a mission to maximize revenues at all costs.
* The plan was met with opposition from some Fifa members and was eventually dropped.