Following a meeting in Morocco on Wednesday, FIFA apologized for the errors made over a plan proposed by President Gianni Infantino to sell stakes in the World Cup, according to a statement released on Thursday.
In July, FIFA proposed creating a commercial subsidiary and selling minority stakes to private investors to fund a sharp increase in development funding for its 211 member associations.
The proposed FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) would have brought together FIFA's commercial rights -- including broadcasting, sponsorship, ticketing and licensing -- with the operational delivery of its tournaments.
FIFA would seek to raise up to 4.2 billion U.S. dollars by selling minority, non-controlling stakes in the company, based on an initial equity valuation of 20 billion dollars.
On Aug 1, Infantino announced the withdrawal of the proposed FFE project, after strong opposition from UEFA, several other continental confederations and key figures within FIFA.
FIFA officials later met in Morocco on Wednesday, where they addressed the proposal and acknowledged the mistakes that had been made, according to a statement.
The process should have been handled differently, and errors were also committed after the proposal was leaked to the media, said the statement.
In a separate letter to the FIFA Council and FIFA Member Associations, FIFA apologized for these errors and pledged to ensure they do not happen again. A review will now be conducted, with a report to be presented to the FIFA Council at its next scheduled meeting, said the statement.
Keir Radnedge, a sports politics and business author, said that private equity in the World Cup would go counter to the wishes of fans, who have been vocal in saying they do not want the tournament to be overly commercialized.
"One person who didn't expect such a reaction was Infantino himself, who thought he could just throw this idea out to his 211 member associations, that they would all say 'oh, yes, please, we'd like lots of that money.' Infantino's plot, plan, scheme -- call it what you like -- is dead in the water, because people fear the commercialization of the World Cup itself. I mean FIFA is a nonprofit body. And fans all around the world have a great emotional investment in the World Cup and they don't like to see it being played with too much in the commercial sense," Radnedge said during an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN).
FIFA apologizes for presidency's plan to sell stakes in World Cup
