Kushner says internal football politics doomed FIFA World Cup investment plan

Joshua Kushner, whose firm Thrive Capital helped design FIFA’s abandoned $20 billion commercial arm, said the venture misjudged the intense power struggles that later sparked outrage over the proposal to sell stakes in World Cup assets. The plan, called FIFA Forward Enterprise, was meant to raise $4.2 billion to benefit poorer football nations and to redistribute capital to all 211 member associations. UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin described the scheme as a “shady, opaque backroom deal.” Kushner added that, had they foreseen the controversy, Thrive Capital would not have become involved.