FIFA President Gianni Infantino could have increased his annual salary nearly tenfold – from the current €3 million to €30 million. This scenario was considered within the framework of a project to sell part of the commercial rights to the World Cups. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Times.
According to the publication, Infantino could also have received additional bonuses for leading the new company FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), which FIFA planned to create to manage commercial assets.
The organization's plans became known on July 28. FIFA intended to create FIFA Forward Enterprise with a valuation of $20 billion and sell 25% of the company to external investors for $4.2 billion.
About 20% of the shares, according to media reports, were to be acquired by a group of investors led by Joshua Kushner. His brother Jared Kushner is the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump.
Financial Times reported that JPMorgan, FIFA, and Kushner's team had been working on the project for several months.
However, the initiative faced stiff resistance from football federations. UEFA, CONCACAF, the Asian Football Confederation, and CONMEBOL opposed the deal. In addition, all 55 UEFA members at an extraordinary meeting decided to boycott tournaments under the auspices of FIFA if the organization did not abandon the project.
Under pressure from critics, on August 1 Infantino announced that FIFA would not sell part of the commercial rights to the World Cups. After that, UEFA stated that the current FIFA leadership had "lost the trust not only of UEFA but also of many other members of the football family."
Earlier, The Telegraph reported that UEFA had given Infantino an ultimatum: resign or face a vote of no confidence.
Gianni Infantino has headed FIFA since 2016. He had previously stated his intention to run again for the presidency of the organization in March of next year.