French newspaper "L'Équipe" has revealed a confidential document prepared for FIFA's member associations, laying bare the details of the "FIFA Forward Enterprise" project that Gianni Infantino put forward at the end of last July, only to withdraw it days later under the weight of objections.
The document obtained by "L'Équipe" makes clear this was no spur-of-the-moment idea or hastily assembled proposal. It grew out of extensive financial and commercial work carried out with American investment bank "JP Morgan". Inside was an integrated blueprint for a huge commercial entity affiliated with FIFA, complete with financial models, an administrative structure and plans to grow revenues and redistribute them to the member associations.
A company worth 20 billion dollars
Running to around 25 pages, the document carries an internal title marking it as material for members of "FIFA Forward Enterprise". It sets out in detail the proposed structure of the new company, its sources of income and how it would operate.
At the heart of the project sat a commercial company that would gather and manage FIFA's various revenue-generating activities. That meant broadcasting and media rights, sponsorship contracts, ticket sales and hospitality services, and licensing and product rights, plus the organisation and running of the major tournaments, chief among them the World Cup and the Club World Cup.
The presentation valued the proposed company at around 20 billion dollars. FIFA planned to sell a minority stake of about 20% to private-sector investors, a move that would have handed the governing body around 4.2 billion dollars immediately.
Bringing in investors would not have handed them influence over sporting decisions. The vision stipulated that FIFA would retain the majority of the capital and a majority of the board seats, while keeping decisions on sporting governance, competitions and their scheduling, and sporting organisation under its exclusive control.
40 million dollars for each association before the 2030 World Cup
Restructuring FIFA's commercial activity was only part of it. The document also laid out huge financial incentives for the 211 national associations.
Under the proposed vision, the basic allocations of the "FIFA Forward" programme would rise from 8 million dollars to 20 million dollars for each association during the 2027-2030 cycle.
Associations could then claim an additional 20 million dollars immediately through the "Fast Forward" programme, taking the total potential funding for each association to 40 million dollars before the 2030 World Cup.
Nor did the increases stop there. The document set out a vision to raise funding to 22 million dollars during the 2031-2034 cycle, and then to 24 million dollars in the 2035-2038 cycle, bringing the total a single association could receive to around 86 million dollars over 12 years.
There was a catch. Full benefit from this financial package was tied to approval of the new structure, with 19 September 2026 set as the deadline for taking up the offer on the terms laid out in the plan.
A project prepared months before the announcement
The figures and projections tell their own story. "FIFA Forward Enterprise" was no quick response to the commercial success of the 2026 World Cup, but a project prepared in advance at an advanced institutional level.
Inside were financial models and growth estimates, a detailed vision of the company's structure, its sources of revenue and how profits would be reinvested, plus a plan to tap commercial sources the drafters described as valuable and which FIFA has not yet exploited to the full.
The plan also pushes for a sharper separation of commercial activity from the sporting side, leaning on specialist expertise and an investment vision relatively independent of the running of competitions and the development of football.
Preparation on this scale shows FIFA treated the project as a long-term institutional transformation, not merely a proposal to be kicked around the corridors of the associations.
A swift announcement, and an even swifter withdrawal
The project surfaced on 28 July 2026. It soon ran into widespread objections from across the football system, among them UEFA, the AFC and CONCACAF, alongside a number of European associations.
Internal turmoil followed. Carlos Cordeiro, the adviser close to Infantino, resigned, before the escalation peaked in the early hours of 1 August, when the FIFA president announced the withdrawal of the project.
Infantino justified the decision on the grounds that the initiative had caused divisions within the football system, running counter to the objective he had been chasing through it.
The document revealed by "L'Équipe" paints a very different picture of the project's scale. What surfaced at the end of July was no improvised idea or trial balloon, but a commercial plan whose details had been prepared in advance, one that included a vision for an entity worth 20 billion dollars, additional funding of tens of millions for each association, and the opening of the door to private investments worth billions of dollars.