Joshua Kushner blames ‘political dynamics’ for collapse of plan to sell World Cup stakes

Joshua Kushner, a venture capitalist and brother of US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, has spoken out about the collapse of a plan to sell stakes in the World Cup. Kushner's firm, Thrive Capital, was set to lead a $4.2 billion investment in a new FIFA commercial subsidiary, but the proposal was abandoned amid a huge backlash. According to Adom Online, Kushner said he now regrets joining the proposal, stating "Had we known what this would devolve into, we would not have gotten involved".

The plan, known as FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), aimed to bring private investment into FIFA events, including the World Cup, by selling stakes in a new commercial subsidiary. FIFA said the proposal would have raised funds to benefit poorer football-playing nations. However, critics argued that the plan was hatched in secret to profit its investors. UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin described the proposal as a "shady, opaque backroom deal".

Kushner attributed the outrage to "political dynamics" within global football, saying his firm had "failed to appreciate" the backlash. He added that while he stands behind the motivations of FFE, which was to direct more capital and equity equally among FIFA's 211 member associations, he acknowledges that the plan was not viable given the opposition it faced. UEFA is preparing a criminal case against FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Times of Israel, Adom Online, New Straits Times, Le Monde Economie, Malay Mail — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.