FIFA senior adviser resigns over plan to sell World Cup stake

Senior FIFA adviser Carlos Cordeiro, who had represented the organization on the White House World Cup task force, resigned on Friday in protest of a plan to create a $20 billion commercial subsidiary that would sell a 20% stake to private investors. Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs banker and ex-president of the U.S. Soccer Federation, said he had no involvement in the proposal and opposed it "unequivocally." He described the deal as "a bad deal for football" and warned that selling a permanent stake in the World Cup to raise $4.2 billion would be "mortgaging football’s future without any compelling justification." Cordeiro noted that FIFA holds billions in reserves and generated $15 billion in revenue from the men's World Cup over the past four years, arguing that the organization does not need to seek external capital. He urged other senior FIFA staff to voice their concerns, stating that decisions of this magnitude should serve the interests of the sport rather than profit motives. The proposal, backed by a New York-based investment firm founded by Joshua Kushner, aims to spin off FIFA’s commercial businesses, including the men’s and women’s World Cups and Club World Cups, into the new subsidiary.