FIFA’s review of its withdrawn Forward Enterprise proposal will be presented to the FIFA Council, the governing body confirmed after Denmark football chief Jesper Moller questioned the handling of the abandoned plan. FIFA President Gianni Infantino presented the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) in July, as a framework to boost the FIFA competitions’ commercial value and extend development funding. The project was later discontinued by FIFA due to opposition and concerns from football stakeholders.
It comes after Moller criticized the Legal Committee of FIFA at their meeting last week. The Danish Football Association (DFA) president said that he had “raised some very serious questions” about the proposal, but had yet to get answers, while FIFA said it would come up for discussion in a council meeting in the near future.
The FIFA Council told Reuters it receives advice and assistance from the FIFA Standing Committees and a discussion on the scrapped FFE proposal will follow. The FIFA Council consists of 37 members: Infantino, 8 vice-presidents and 28 representatives elected by the member associations of FIFA.
The FFE proposal received a lot of opposition from various football confederations. After the controversy, UEFA, the AFC and CONCACAF demanded a change in the leadership of FIFA. FIFA, on the other hand, had stated it would not go ahead with the proposal as it had divided stakeholders.
The issue is also part of a broader discussion on FIFA’s leadership in the run-up to the March 18, 2027, presidential election in Rabat. Infantino is running for re-election. The Council review process will be the next formal avenue for discussion of the development and management of the withdrawn commercial proposal, with governance and transparency issues being at the heart of the debate, for now.
