Wenger says scrapping World Cup sell-off plan was necessary

Arsène Wenger said that scrapping FIFA President Gianni Infantino's plan to sell stakes in future World Cup competitions was necessary.

The reversal marks a significant retreat for Infantino after a proposal to monetize the tournament's future ownership faced a backlash from global soccer officials. The move signals a rare moment of internal misalignment among the highest levels of football governance.

Wenger, who serves as FIFA's chief of global football development and is a former manager of Arsenal, said the decision to withdraw the plan was beyond question. The proposal would have seen FIFA sell stakes in the prestigious tournament, a move that critics argued could compromise the integrity of the game for financial gain.

According to reports, the proposed sell-off plan was valued at $20 billion ^[1]. The scale of the financial arrangement contributed to the controversy, as officials feared the influence of private equity or external investors over the world's most watched sporting event.

"It was absolutely necessary and beyond question," Wenger said.

The withdrawal of the plan followed a backlash from officials across the global soccer community. This pressure forced the FIFA president to abandon the strategy to diversify the funding of future competitions through the sale of equity.

"Gianni Infantino's decision to withdraw from a plan to sell stakes in future World Cups was absolutely necessary," Wenger said.

While the specific timeline for the proposal's rise and fall was not detailed, the consensus among senior executives suggests the plan was deemed too controversial to survive. Wenger's public support for the cancellation aligns him with other senior FIFA figures who distanced themselves from the failed initiative.