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Former FIFA governance committee chair Miguel Maduro believes there is a very high likelihood that FIFA’s controversial $20 billion commercial sell-off plan will be approved, leaving UEFA and national associations with little ability to block the move.
Recall that FIFA announced plans to create a commercial subsidiary (FIFA Forward Enterprise) to run its major events, including the World Cup. FIFA aims to sell up to a 20% minority stake to external private equity investors to raise roughly $4.2 billion.
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However, UEFA and European federations have strongly criticized the move, calling an emergency meeting to weigh potential responses or a boycott.
Reacting to the development, Maduro described FIFA as a political cartel built on patronage, making internal or external resistance difficult.
He warns that FIFA could eventually leverage this commercial entity and an expanded Club World Cup to rival or overshadow UEFA’s Champions League.
“The problem is the way the governance structure of FIFA operates is such that it works as a ‘political cartel’ that’s fed and supported on a system of patronage.
“If you promise to lots of national associations that you’re going to give them $20M, which for many this $20M is more money than they can ever conceive of having, there’s a very high likelihood this will be approved because these associations need the money.
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“What we’ve seen so far for the most part is that these statements, where they distance themselves from these kinds of initiatives of FIFA, are made under the pressure of public opinions. But then they actually never follow through.
“They will want to transform that into the big international football competition of clubs instead of the Champions League. That’s what they will try to do because it will be in their commercial interest,” he said.
