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Premier League Chief Executive Richard Masters said Tuesday that FIFA had pressed the "self-destruct button" with its failed plan to sell stakes in the World Cup.
“This is a self-inflicted wound. The organization has pressed the self-destruct button, and the consequences of that flow now into the solutions that need to be found,” Masters told BBC Sport.
Masters said FIFA, as a not-for-profit organization, should hold the World Cup in trust for football's future rather than consider selling a stake in the competition.
“I don't think FIFA should ever be contemplating selling off a stake in the World Cup,” he said.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino continues to face mounting criticism for the abandoned plan to sell stakes in FIFA competitions, including the World Cup.
The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) accused FIFA of deception and a fundamental breach of trust in how it handled the proposal.
Several national football bodies, including the English Football Association, have also withdrawn support for Infantino.
Masters backed the FA's position, saying “I think it's a bad idea, and the FA have taken the right position regarding Gianni.”
He also urged a unity candidate to challenge Infantino for the FIFA presidency.
“I think an emerging unity candidate should have on his or her agenda reform of FIFA, and perhaps even reform of the president's role and how it interacts with those things,” he said.
Infantino is seeking reelection at the FIFA Congress in March 2027, but no challenger has declared their candidacy.
FIFA unveiled the proposal in late July, seeking to create a new subsidiary, FIFA Forward Enterprise, that would hold the commercial and operational rights to FIFA tournaments, including the World Cup.
The plan involved selling about 20% of the venture to private investors, valuing it at $20 billion, with a firm run by Joshua Kushner—the brother of President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner—reported as a prospective buyer.
UEFA's 55 member associations voted to boycott FIFA competitions over the plan, and senior FIFA adviser Carlos Cordeiro resigned in protest.
Infantino withdrew the proposal days later, saying it had “created divisions of a nature that ... are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place.”
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