Fifa has abandoned a controversial plan to sell a minority stake in the World Cup after facing intense backlash, including boycott threats and calls for president Gianni Infantino to resign. The episode has raised fresh questions about how far private investment should be allowed to reach into the governance of football's showpiece tournament.
At the center of the plan was Thrive Eternal, a newly created investment arm of venture capital firm Thrive Capital, led by Joshua Kushner, brother of Jared Kushner. Thrive Capital has traditionally focused on technology and artificial intelligence, notably as a major backer of OpenAI. Thrive Eternal, launched in April, was designed to pursue a different strategy: investing in assets considered resistant to disruption by AI.
Football, and specifically the World Cup, fit that thesis. The belief driving Thrive's approach is that the emotional, cultural and traditional pull of sport will insulate it from the kind of technological displacement already reshaping industries such as film and music. Under Fifa's proposed Forward Enterprise (FFE) structure, Thrive-led investors sought a minority stake in the tournament, reportedly valuing it at around $20 billion with an initial investment of $4.2 billion.
According to the BBC, discussions around the FFE proposal began last year, well before this summer's World Cup hosted jointly by the United States, Canada and Mexico. Former Liberty Media executive Greg Maffei, who has experience negotiating commercial rights for Formula 1, was brought in as an adviser, alongside former Disney chief executive Bob Iger.
Thrive Eternal has already made moves elsewhere in sport, including acquiring a stake in Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants, and is reportedly interested in a new British Basketball Association-style expansion franchise based in Las Vegas. The company's stated philosophy is that