FIFA Faces Crisis as Carlos Cordeiro Resigns in Protest
Carlos Cordeiro has walked away from FIFA and straight into the heart of the biggest crisis of Gianni Infantino’s presidency.
The senior advisor to the FIFA president, a former banker and one-time head of the US Soccer Federation, resigned in protest at plans to consult on selling a stake in a new World Cup commercial vehicle to private investors. He did not go quietly.
“As a senior advisor to the FIFA president, a former banker, and a lifelong football fan, I cannot stand by while FIFA considers selling a stake in the World Cup,” Cordeiro said in a statement to Sky News. “Let me be clear: I had no involvement in this proposal, and I oppose it unequivocally. It is a bad deal for FIFA's Member Associations, a bad deal for football, and a bad deal for the long-term future of the game.”
In Zurich, the walls are closing in.
A consultation that sparked a revolt
The flashpoint is FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), a proposed commercial entity that would handle World Cup and other FIFA properties, with a minority stake earmarked for private investors. An investor group led by Thrive Eternal, founded by Joshua Kushner – brother of Jared Kushner, son-in-law of former US President Donald Trump – is waiting in the wings.
FIFA insists nobody is “selling football”. Its statement, released in the early hours of Friday morning, carried a defiant message: the consultation will go on.
“We have heard the feedback provided by the respective confederations in relation to the proposed establishment of FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE),” the governing body said. “We respect the feedback and concern aired in public and reaffirm our commitment to an open and democratic consultation.
“Our planned consultation process was disrupted by incorrect media reports. We will proceed with this consultation process to ensure that each MA has the ability to express its vote based on facts.”
The line that followed was designed to calm the storm.
“FFE has been proposed solely to ensure that all FIFA Member Associations (MAs) have the opportunity to take meaningful ownership of the commercial opportunity of football in their respective countries, and that this does not come at the cost of either the spirit or the governance of FIFA or football itself. Nobody is selling football. This is not something FIFA would ever entertain.”
The problem for Infantino is that almost everyone outside his inner circle seems to think something very different is happening.
Europe, Asia, the Americas – a united front
UEFA’s 55 member associations moved first, and hard. On Thursday they declared they would not take part in any FIFA competition while the proposals remain on the table.
“No UEFA national teams will participate in any FIFA competition for so long as these proposals remain alive, unless this proposal has been abandoned in its entirety and binding assurances have been given that FIFA will never again open its governance or competitions to private ownership,” the European body said. Its opposition, it stressed, was “unanimous and unequivocal”.
CONCACAF, representing 41 nations from North and Central America and the Caribbean, followed, stating it “rejected the proposal”. The Asian Football Confederation, traditionally one of Infantino’s strongest bases of support, then broke ranks as well, calling for “an urgent review” of FIFA’s governance.
Add up those three confederations and the numbers are stark: 143 of FIFA’s 211 member associations are now publicly against the plan.
The AFC’s intervention was especially telling. Its president, Sheikh Salman, lost to Infantino in the 2016 FIFA presidential election, yet the confederation has largely backed him since. This time, its language cut close to the bone.
“The AFC believes this moment must become a catalyst for strengthening institutional reform,” it said. “While every FIFA MA must have the opportunity to consider and determine proposals affecting the future of world football, meaningful democracy is not measured solely by the opportunity to vote. It begins with transparent governance, timely consultation, informed deliberation and genuine participation throughout the decision-making process.
“Accordingly, the AFC calls upon FIFA to undertake an urgent review of its governance and decision-making framework to ensure that proposals of global significance are developed through proper consultation, meaningful engagement and appropriate oversight by FIFA's statutory bodies.”
When your allies start talking like that, the ground is shifting.
Infantino’s gamble
Infantino has publicly backed FFE and the private investment model. The sales pitch to national associations is simple: huge returns, more money flowing to the grassroots, more control for each country over its commercial destiny.
But that promise collides with a brutal reality. If UEFA and its 55 members stay out of FIFA competitions, and if Asia and CONCACAF maintain their opposition, the men’s and women’s World Cups would be stripped of vast chunks of their competitive and commercial core. Any forecast of “huge returns” instantly looks fragile.
European and global leagues have already lined up against the project, wary that commercial pressures would push FIFA towards more tournaments, bigger formats and expanded calendars that chew up domestic schedules. For them, this is not just about ownership; it is about control of the football calendar itself.
FIFA, in its statement, tried to frame the debate as a question of democracy.
“Each MA should be allowed to review the proposal and have a say in shaping their own future,” it said.
Yet the way this plan emerged – and the speed with which the confederations reacted – has raised deeper questions about who is really steering the game and on whose terms.
‘He’s in a hole and he needs to stop digging’
Inside FIFA, the statement issued overnight did not even mention Infantino by name. Outside, his fingerprints are seen everywhere.
Sky Sports News’ Kaveh Solhekol did not mince his words.
“It is a desperate, tone-deaf statement that was issued in the middle of the night from FIFA's Zurich bunker,” he said. “It's very interesting that it doesn't mention their president by name.
“The way I read this is that this is a statement from Gianni Infantino; it's not necessarily a FIFA statement. How many people inside FIFA actually agree with what he is doing?
“He’s in a hole and he needs to stop digging. He needs to start reading the room. He needs to start accepting the fact his power is starting to ebb away and he needs to start by apologising to football, to football fans all around the world – and he also needs to start apologising and explain himself to the confederations and the presidents of the 211 member associations.
“And he needs to stop blaming the media. What is this crazy obsession he's got? He seems to have picked it up from President Donald Trump, where he thinks it's a good idea to keep lashing out at the media. He seems to somehow think that is going to help him.
“The reporting that has been done this week, which was led by The Times and the Financial Times has been completely and utterly accurate. And if it wasn't for this reporting, there wouldn't be this furore that we have now and we wouldn't know the facts we know now.
“I suggest Infantino needs to change course. He needs to wake up and fully understand the mess he has created for himself and he needs to start saying sorry because I think that's the only way he's going to be able to save himself.”
It is rare to hear a sitting FIFA president described in such terms, and rarer still when so many of the game’s power blocs are already lined up against him on a single issue.
Is there a way back?
Infantino has survived storms before. Ethics investigations, political skirmishes, battles over World Cup expansion and calendar reform – he has slipped through all of them and tightened his grip on power.
This time feels different.
“Infantino has been in plenty of tight spots and he has managed to extricate from them,” Solhekol said. “But I think he's in big, big trouble now. I think this is the biggest crisis he's faced – and it's all of his own making.
“The best way for him to survive, he seems to think, is to pretend this is all just a democratic process, what's happening now is just a consultation, the 211 FAs can decide whether to go ahead with this plan, and if they don't, no problem at all, it's all been a storm in a teacup.
“Other people, I think, would advise him to come out and say sorry, then lie low for a while, maybe ride it out and maybe he could be re-elected as FIFA president unopposed next March, but that doesn't seem to be what he's doing.
“I'm not sure he can carry on down this road of blaming the media and carrying on with the consultation process. I'm not sure he understands the strength of feeling against him – not just over this, but over lots of things he's done since he's been FIFA president.”
Cordeiro’s resignation strips away one more layer of cover. A senior advisor, a former insider, a man steeped in finance and governance, has chosen to walk rather than be associated with the project. That sends a message to every federation president watching from afar.
FIFA says nobody is selling football. Three confederations, scores of national associations, and one of Infantino’s own senior advisors are acting as if the game itself is on the table.
The next move belongs to the president. How many more can he afford to lose before the World Cup, and his own position, start to look like assets the rest of football is no longer willing to leave in his hands?
