FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s failed plan to privatize the World Cup took another interesting turn yesterday when UEFA requested subpoenas for Joshua Kushner and his firm, Thrive Capital Management, as part of the organization’s plan to potentially bring criminal charges against Infantino in Switzerland.
We all know the story by now. After holding the most commercially successful World Cup ever this past summer in North America, Infantino secretly put together a plan to move FIFA’s revenue-generating assets into a new holding company. Kushner’s venture capital firm was set to anchor the new company with a $4.2 billion investment, valuing the newly created for-profit entity at $20 billion. But when Infantino announced the plan, pretty much every confederation (and fans) revolted. Infantino then backpedaled and scrapped the plan just days later.
But one thing that hasn’t been discussed nearly enough is that Infantino was offering Kushner a massive discount. We’ll get into the numbers in a second, and it will be clear these assets are worth far more than $20 billion. So the question is: Why would Infantino do that? And, more importantly, what does he get out of it?
The answer is more complicated than you might think. That’s because, along with a compensation package that would have made him the richest president in FIFA history, Infantino also hatched a plan to guarantee himself near-universal control.