Arsène Wenger Supports FIFA's Decision to Abandon Investment Plan
Arsène Wenger has thrown his weight firmly behind the decision to scrap Gianni Infantino’s controversial plan to sell a stake in a new World Cup commercial vehicle, calling the U-turn “absolutely necessary and beyond question”.
The former Arsenal manager, now FIFA’s chief of global football development, broke his silence on Tuesday morning, a week after news first emerged of the proposed FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) project and its partial sale to private equity.
The idea was bold. Too bold for many inside the game. FFE was intended as a company to manage World Cup and other FIFA commercial rights, with 20 per cent of it earmarked for outside investors. The backlash was instant and fierce.
Three continental confederations rejected the plan outright. UEFA went further, raising the stakes dramatically by threatening to boycott the World Cup and other FIFA competitions if the proposal was not abandoned. Under that kind of pressure, Infantino retreated.
Wenger has now made clear he agreed with that retreat.
“The recent events at FIFA deserve some clarity from my side,” the Frenchman said in a statement. He stressed his current role: “At FIFA, I am the Chief of Global Football Development.”
From there, he set out his day-to-day responsibilities. Wenger oversees the game’s data analysis, the FIFA online training centre, and the development of youth education through 60 academies in 60 countries “where they are most needed”, as well as youth competitions across the globe. He also serves as a technical adviser to IFAB, the body that shapes the Laws of the Game.
Then came the key line. Wenger stated he had no part in the FFE project and only learned of it when it broke in the media. For someone so embedded in FIFA’s technical and developmental work, that distance from a major strategic move is striking.
“I was not involved in this strategic plan and first became aware of the project through media reports,” he said.
The implication is clear: this was not his project, nor one he could support. His verdict on the decision to walk away from it left no room for ambiguity.
“The decision to withdraw the project was absolutely necessary and beyond question, because I firmly believe in an independent FIFA that serves our game with commitment, transparency, and integrity.”
Unlike Carlos Cordeiro, Infantino’s senior adviser who resigned over the affair, Wenger gave no hint he is considering his own position. He remains inside the organisation, but now publicly aligned with those who saw the private equity push as a step too far.
In a landscape where governance battles often play out behind closed doors, Wenger has chosen his side in plain language: FIFA, he insists, must belong to football, not to investors.
