Kushner states regret over World Cup sell-off plan

Venture capitalist Joshua Kushner, who was to lead the investment for Fifa president Gianni Infantino's scrapped plan to sell stakes in the World Cup, has expressed regret over his involvement. In his initial remarks following the cancelled Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) scheme, which triggered a major crisis for the governing body, Kushner stated, "Had we known what this would devolve into, we would not have gotten involved."

The brother of President Donald Trump's son-in-law also admitted to failing to grasp the political complexities of global football. Despite his criticism, Kushner defended the proposal's motivations, asserting, "we stand behind the motivations of FFE," and its intention was to distribute more capital and equity equally among Fifa's 211 member associations.

Kushner's firm, Thrive Eternal, had discussed the potential of a $4.2bn (£3.1bn) investment in 20% of a new Fifa commercial subsidiary before the plan was abandoned amid widespread backlash. Uefa, the body of European football, has called for a criminal complaint against Infantino, prompting Kushner's comments. The statements from Kushner came shortly after Uefa sought court approval to subpoena testimony and documents from both Kushner and Thrive.

Uefa claims it is not seeking to charge Kushner or American financier Greg Maffei, but it asserts that they had discussions about the FFE concept in July 2025 and Infantino had been considering the plan for nearly a year. Uefa also argues that the World Cup was undervalued at around £15bn, which it claims was not the result of an open, competitive auction or an independent valuation.