Gianni Infantino’s gamble fails

{"text":[[{"start":8.06,"text":"This article is an online version of our Scoreboard newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every Saturday. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all FT newsletters"}],[{"start":21.06,"text":"It’s been quite the week for football executives (and journalists) who thought they could have a break following the grind of a five-week, three-country World Cup. But as one source put it: “Gianni never stops.”"}],[{"start":31.4,"text":"Fifa’s president, never shy of making news, dominated the headlines again with his plan to spin out a new commercial entity and sell a chunk off to investors."}],[{"start":42.12,"text":"But late last night that plan collapsed. Infantino said it had “become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place”."}],[{"start":53.24,"text":"The decision follows intense backlash from senior figures at Fifa, European governing body Uefa, other football confederations and days of uproar since the FT first revealed the plan."}],[{"start":64.08,"text":"In this week’s newsletter, we’re bringing you all the FT’s coverage leading up to this moment, from JPMorgan’s key role to the mounting opposition from inside football and beyond. Plus, we talk to sports consultant Dan Jones about whether the proposal itself was any good."}],[{"start":79.6,"text":"But for a bit of relief from Fifa, we’re also explaining that while the NFL is the sporting world’s most powerful financial juggernaut, that doesn’t necessarily equal profits. Do read on — Josh Noble, sports editor"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":92.2,"text":"Send us tips and feedback at scoreboard@ft.com. Not already receiving the email newsletter? Sign up here. For everyone else, let’s go."}],[{"start":92.7,"text":"Inside football’s week of chaos: FT highlights"}],[{"start":106.63,"text":"The week that shook football — How Fifa’s proposal to open up the global game to investors unfolded — and invited a backlash that could yet topple its controversial president. Our inside story of a plan hatched under a tree in Sun Valley and sprung on the world of football just days after the World Cup final."}],[{"start":122.022,"text":"How JPMorgan walked into another football firestorm — Just five years after JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon was forced to apologise for its role in the failed European Super League project, the bank is once again a key player in a plan that threatens to tear football apart."}],[{"start":139.16,"text":"Fifa stake sale could work, but not at this price — Our colleagues at Lex believe the idea of selling off a slice of Fifa’s commercial revenues is not that wild, but the money on offer falls short."}],[{"start":151.08,"text":"Greg Maffei insists Fifa not ‘selling the World Cup’ — One of the key architects of Fifa’s controversial plan to establish a $20bn commercial entity hit back at critics, saying it does not amount to selling the World Cup and bears little resemblance to the failed launch of a breakaway European Super League."}],[{"start":168.8,"text":"EU threatens investigation into Fifa’s $20bn commercial venture — The EU warned that it would investigate Fifa’s investment plan, as the football governing bodies of Europe and North America led a growing chorus of opposition to the proposal."}],[{"start":169.3,"text":"Q&A: Dan Jones, sports consultant"}],[{"start":182.96,"text":"Scoreboard: What do you think of Fifa Forward Enterprise?"}],[{"start":189.96,"text":"Dan Jones: In principle, it’s a terrible idea. There have been private equity investments into teams and leagues, but of all the things that don’t need investment, the World Cup is about as good as it gets. The competition they’ve just held is swimming in money. I don’t understand how you can brand, promote or increase awareness of it any more. Why you would need to pay private equity-type returns to develop Fifa competitions is beyond me."}],[{"start":214.52,"text":"What about the cash it could generate for Fifa members?"}],[{"start":217.28,"text":"People will say it generates X million for smaller federations, but the investors are going to want a return. It will put in X million now but take out Y over however many years."}],[{"start":227.66,"text":"What’s the risk to the World Cup and to Fifa?"}],[{"start":230.32,"text":"In this incredibly atomised, individualised world, where there is infinite content in everybody’s hand, you’ve got something [that commands] global, live, appointment viewing. The whole world stops and watches. The idea you’d do something to blow it up and stop it working would seem completely nuts."}],[{"start":247,"text":"Why would bringing in an outside investor move it on to the next level rather than risking blowing the whole thing up?"}],[{"start":252.32,"text":"It’s a similar ill-conceived folly to the European Super League."}],[{"start":252.82,"text":"Publicly owned Packers face the NFL’s private-equity era"}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":260.24,"text":"As the NFL’s only publicly owned franchise, the Green Bay Packers are required to make their finances public each year, offering a peek into the business of the world’s richest sports league."}],[{"start":271.4,"text":"But the team’s latest financial report delivered a surprise: the Packers lost money in a non-pandemic season for the first time since the 1990 fiscal year."}],[{"start":281.28,"text":"The Wisconsin-based team had an operating loss of $1.1mn for the 2025 season — driven by a $130mn surge in player costs as the team acquired star edge rusher Micah Parsons among other roster moves."}],[{"start":295.88,"text":"Even if the result was an anomaly due to inflated player costs, the Packers face a growing financial disadvantage. Other NFL franchises can sell minority stakes to unlock cash from skyrocketing team values, and are increasingly tapping private equity investment."}],[{"start":311.48,"text":"“It’s like other teams have access to this ATM machine that we just don’t have right now,” Packers chief executive Ed Policy said last Friday as the team released its annual report."}],[{"start":321.08,"text":"Instead, the Packers are organised as a “non-profit stock corporation”, meaning the team is “owned” by hundreds of thousands of fans rather than a single deep-pocketed owner. The Packers have sold stock six times to the public over the years, most recently raising $66mn in 2022."}],[{"start":339,"text":"But shares pay no dividend and cannot be sold for capital gain. For Packers diehards (aka Cheeseheads), the real value is claiming a piece of an NFL franchise, however symbolic it may be."}],[{"start":351.92,"text":"While changing the ownership structure is out of the question, Policy said the Packers would “have to be more aggressive with revenue generation going forward”. The team will explore selling naming rights to assets like its practice facility, though Policy ruled out any such deal for historic Lambeau Field, one of only two unbranded stadiums in the NFL."}],[{"start":370.12,"text":"The NFL’s national revenue-sharing model helps teams like the Packers — who play in the smallest market in major US professional sports — keep up financially. Green Bay received $453.2mn from the league in the most recent fiscal year (up nearly 5 per cent from the prior year). Split equally among the 32 franchises, that implies the NFL generated about $14.5bn, most of it from media rights."}],[{"start":397.64,"text":"The Packers also reported having about $701mn in their “corporate reserve fund” — which started more than three decades ago as a rainy-day fund — up from $579mn a year ago. However, as Policy pointed out, “a team can sell 5 to 10 per cent of their equity without giving up any controlling interest in the team, and they could raise more money than we have in our capital reserve fund in just a matter of months”."}],[{"start":424.5,"text":"For instance, the New England Patriots sold an 8 per cent minority stake at a $9bn valuation to US financier Dean Metropoulos and private capital giant Sixth Street last October. The deal followed an off-season spending spree that helped catapult the team back to the Super Bowl."}],[{"start":442.36,"text":"Teams have made a flurry of minority stake sales at valuations as high as $12.5bn since 2024, when the NFL allowed private equity investment for the first time. While league-approved private equity firms can only acquire stakes of up to 10 per cent in teams, with strict limits on their influence, the new rules provide greater liquidity for owners as franchise valuations soar."}],[{"start":466.46,"text":"But these rules don’t serve the 538,967 Cheeseheads who own one of the NFL’s most storied clubs. To keep pace in the league’s private-equity era, the Packers will have to get creative."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":479.68,"text":"Scoreboard is written by Josh Noble and Samuel Agini in London, with contributions from the team that produce the Due Diligence newsletter, the FT’s global network of correspondents and the data visualisation team. It is edited by Benjamin Wilhelm in New York and Lee Campbell-Guthrie in London."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":497.32,"text":"The Lex Newsletter — Lex, our investment column, breaks down the week’s key themes, with analysis by award-winning writers. Sign up here"}],[{"start":504.68,"text":"Unhedged — Robert Armstrong dissects the most important market trends and discusses how Wall Street’s best minds respond to them. Sign up here"}],[{"start":518.84,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1785588846_2784.mp3"}