Infantino’s World Cup proposal has ‘gone down like a lead balloon’, says former Football Australia boss

“It’s gone down like a lead balloon.”

This is David Gallop’s view of FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s now-infamous World Cup privatisation proposal.

“That’s how poorly it’s been received.”

Mr Gallop has been one of Australia’s foremost sport’s administrators. He was CEO of the NRL from 2002-2012 before jumping ship to become the boss of Football Federation Australia for seven years until his tenure ended in 2019.

He has watched on this past week as Mr Infantino’s failed sell-off plan has evolved into a full-blown crisis over his leadership.

Mr Infantino’s proposal, dubbed the FIFA Forward Enterprise, would have seen the commercial rights of FIFA’s most popular tournaments, including the World Cup, transferred to a private company, and a 20 per cent stake sold to investors, valued at $20 billion.

It’s been reported Joshua Kushner, the brother of Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, was one of the private equity figures behind the plan.

“Anytime you sell anything, you need to have good, compelling reasons, but particularly so when it comes to something like the World Cup and … sport in general,” Mr Gallop told 7.30. 

“You’ve got to know that you really need to do it. You really need the money. What are you getting for the slice of the asset and what are you giving up?

“Clearly people have not liked the idea that private investment, and therefore, a profit motive that comes away from the game to those private investors would be something that FIFA would contemplate.”

‘One-off sugar hit’ 

Mr Gallop said privatisation was not inherently wrong but required an overwhelming strategic and financial case to be valid.

“It will be a mistake to burn the furniture to heat the house,” he said. 

“You need to be setting up your sport and the business of your sport for sustainability, not for a one-off sugar hit of capital.

“These are the questions that have to be answered when one is looking at private sale of these effectively community assets that people feel strongly about.”

The proposal offered FIFA’s 211 member federations one-off payments of $20 million each, but Mr Gallop said FIFA’s financial position only heightened questions about why such a proposal had been pursued.

“FIFA has $5 billion in cash now after the World Cup,” he said. 

Within three days of the proposal, Mr Infantino and FIFA scrapped the plans.

Europe’s UEFA, North America’s CONCACAF and Asia’s AFC, which Australia is member of, all opposed the plan.

UEFA, CONCACAF, as well as a growing number of national federations have taken it further by withdrawing their support of Mr Infantino’s leadership.

Football Australia’s chair Anter Isaac and CEO Martin Kugeler both declined an interview with 7.30.

The organisation has welcomed the decision by FIFA to scrap the privatisation proposal but is yet to weigh-in on Mr Infantino’s, now under siege, leadership.

Mr Gallop said Australia’s influence on the world game came less through political power than integrity.

Infantino’s ‘blotted copybook’

The integrity of Mr Infantino, like that of his predecessor Sepp Blatter has now been called into question.

Mr Infantino was elected in 2016 promising to restore confidence in FIFA, following a number of corruption scandals that occurred under Mr Blatter’s 17-year reign as president.

Mr Gallop’s time at FA straddled the terms of both men. He was also CEO in 2010, when Australia’s bid to host the 2022 World Cup was beaten by Qatar, a decision that was mired in controversy and allegations of corruption.

“There was a bit of a stench around FIFA and Gianni came in with a pitch of transparency, accountability, consultation and putting football first,” Mr Gallop said.

“[Especially} coming hot off the heels of a number of other contentious decisions, including the lifting of the red card on the USA player during the tournament.”

Despite calls for Mr Infantino’s resignation growing louder, Mr Gallop said his tenure at the top of world football might not be over just yet.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily so that he won’t get re-elected. He has some big confederations against him at the moment, but he has others where FIFA has carefully funded development in a lot of smaller nations,” he said. 

Mr Gallop remembers representing Australia at FIFA congresses, sitting next to the small Caribbean nation of Aruba — “a population of a hundred thousand people.”

“Behind us would be Brazil … millions of people, an absolute icon of world football … but everyone gets one vote; that’s where your confederation structure comes into play,” he said.

Mr Gallop believes the president’s political future will depend on whether member associations believe the successes achieved under his leadership outweigh the damage caused by the failed privatisation proposal.

Fan outrage

Patrick Clancy, head of the Football Supporters Association in Australia, told 7.30 many fans felt betrayed by the proposal.

“He’s tried to privatise football at the expense of the game of football,” he said. 

“It’s something that came out of nowhere and is not in line with what anyone has thought of before. And so I think that’s the concern; where’s it all going?”

His organisation is now very keen to understand where Football Australia stands on Mr Infantino and his leadership.

Mr Clancy says football supporters want to see the game run properly.

“They want to feel that there is a degree of integrity and they don’t want a money-hungry organisation that seems to be interfering with that organic nature of the game,” he said. 

“Within 24 hours, Infantino and FIFA completely changed the shape of world football.

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