This page tracks FIFA's plan to sell a minority stake in the company that would run the World Cup, and the revolt it triggered. We update it as votes, deadlines and defections land; the "Updated" date at the top tells you how fresh it is. * What is actually being sold. Not the World Cup itself - FIFA is emphatic about that, and it is technically correct. What is on the table is up to 20% of a new subsidiary, FIFA Forward Enterprise, into which FIFA's commercial and event operations would be placed. The trophy stays with FIFA. The business that monetises the trophy gets outside shareholders. Forbes reported the structure on July 29, 2026 as a roughly $4.2 billion raise valuing the entity at about $20 billion. * Who is buying. The lead investor group is Thrive Eternal, a fund created by Thrive Capital, the firm founded by Josh Kushner. JPMorgan bankers are advising. Gianni Infantino, asked by The Times about the idea of his serving as commissioner or chief executive of the new company, said it "has never been discussed." * The deadline. September 19, 2026. FIFA's 211 member associations - one vote each, Germany and Guam alike - are being asked to approve the plan by then, and a yes comes with an immediate payment to each association. * **The number that moved** * Here is a detail worth holding onto, because it is the kind of thing that gets flattened in a headline. On July 29, 2026, Forbes reported the offer as $20 million per member association. On July 31, after UEFA's boycott vote, Al Jazeera reported Infantino offering $40 million each. We have not seen a FIFA statement reconciling the two figures, so treat both as reported rather than settled, and note the direction of travel: the number got larger after the opposition organised. * The $20 million figure has an arithmetic property worth noticing. 211 associations at $20 million each is $4.22 billion - functionally the entire capital raise. On those numbers, the money coming in from investors goes straight back out to the people voting on whether investors get in. That is not an accusation of anything improper; it is what the structure does. At $40 million a head the payout would be roughly $8.4 billion, or about double the reported raise, which is one reason the discrepancy matters rather than being a rounding error. * **Why Europe went nuclear** * On Thursday, July 30, 2026, UEFA held an emergency meeting and its 55 member associations voted unanimously - 55 to 0 - to boycott FIFA tournaments if the plan goes ahead. The scope is not symbolic: the men's World Cup, the women's World Cup and the Club World Cup. UEFA said no team from any of its members would take part "so long as these proposals remain alive," and that it would keep boycotting unless the proposal is abandoned "in its entirety" and FIFA gives "binding assurances" it will not pursue private ownership again. * Its statement of principle was short: "The World Cup cannot be treated as an investment product... No part of it should ever be surrendered to private investors. The World Cup is not for sale." * Strip the diplomacy and the leverage is obvious. A World Cup without European teams is not a World Cup with a gap in it; it is a different and much cheaper product. The value of the thing being sold depends on the participation of the confederation that just voted to withhold it. Whatever else UEFA did on July 30, it put a question mark over the $20 billion valuation. * **FIFA's answer** * FIFA did not blink. On July 31 it said it would "proceed with this consultation process to ensure that each MA has the ability to express its vote based on facts," and insisted: "Nobody is selling football. This is not something FIFA would ever entertain." It also said it would not advance without majority support from the 211 members - which is both a reassurance and a reminder of the arithmetic. UEFA has 55 votes. A simple majority of 211 is 106. Europe cannot outvote the rest of the world on its own; it can only refuse to play. * One person did leave. Carlos Cordeiro, a senior adviser to Infantino and a former president of US Soccer, resigned on Friday, July 31, 2026 over the plan. * **Where the other confederations stand** * As of July 31, 2026: CONCACAF rejected the proposal but did not vote to boycott. The Asian Football Confederation is strongly opposed and also stopped short of a boycott vote. The Mexican Football Federation said it would study the proposal before deciding. CAF (Africa), CONMEBOL (South America) and OFC (Oceania) had not announced positions or vote dates. * That distribution is the whole game. The associations most likely to accept are the ones for which $20 million is transformative relative to their annual budget, and those are overwhelmingly outside Europe. The associations refusing are the ones whose players make the tournament worth $20 billion. FIFA's one-member-one-vote structure, long defended as the democratic heart of the organisation, is now the mechanism by which the smallest federations decide the fate of the biggest ones' asset. * **What we are watching next** * Whether the reported per-association payment settles at $20 million or $40 million, and whether FIFA confirms either. Whether CAF, CONMEBOL and OFC schedule votes before September 19. Whether any UEFA member breaks ranks from the 55. Whether FIFA modifies the structure - a smaller stake, a governance carve-out, a veto for the confederations - to peel off opposition before the deadline. Whether the September 19 vote happens on schedule, is postponed, or is quietly dropped. And, if it passes, what UEFA actually does the first time a qualifying window arrives.