Summary
Overview
Ken Early breaks down FIFA's controversial plan to sell up to 49% of the World Cup and other competitions to private investors, with Josh Kushner's firm positioned to take a major stake. The proposal offers cash-strapped football associations up to $40 million over four years, but threatens to transform football from a community-based sport into a purely commercial entertainment product controlled by American businessmen with no connection to the game's traditions.
FIFA's Privatization Pitch: The $40 Million Offer
Gianni Infantino has sent letters to all FIFA member associations offering them a choice: take the standard $8 million over four years, or opt into a new privatization scheme that could net them up to $40 million. The proposal involves selling stakes in FIFA's competitions to private investors, with Josh Kushner's firm positioned to acquire 20-30% ownership. Associations have until September 19th to decide, with little clarity on how the scheme actually works or what they're giving up in exchange for the cash injection.
- FIFA is offering associations up to $40 million over the next four-year cycle versus the standard $8 million
- The total package could reach $86 million over 12 years with increasing payments
- An additional $20 million unlock payment is available, though the mechanism is unclear
- FIFA would maintain controlling interest, with 20-30% owned by Kushner Associates and the rest by national associations
" You can have $86 million over the next 12 years. "
The Russian Privatization Analogy: How Oligarchs Win
Ken compares FIFA's scheme to the failed Russian voucher privatization after the Soviet Union's collapse, where ordinary citizens were given shares in state industries only to sell them off cheaply to oligarchs who understood their true value. The FAI and other struggling associations are cast as desperate workers with alcohol dependencies and no market knowledge, while the Kushners are positioned as the savvy oligarchs ready to consolidate power by buying up these shares at bargain prices.
- Russia distributed vouchers worth 10,000 rubles in state industries to citizens after communism collapsed
- Ordinary people sold their shares cheaply to oligarchs who recognized the true value
- Cash-strapped associations like the FAI, owing €36 million, see the immediate money as irresistible
- The scheme allows private investors to gradually consolidate ownership by buying up small stakeholders' shares
" I'm not really sure how this works, to be honest. I don't know much about shares or trading or investments or any of those things. But I would quite like to get like 5,000 rubles today to pay for food. "
" It's a bit like in Russia, the Soviet Union, when the Soviet Union collapsed, they had the problem of what to do with all of these state industries that the communist government had built and owned. "
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