Tag: Jared Kushner

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Infantino abandons plans to sell World Cup profits to private equity following massive pushback

FIFA President Gianni Infantino is abandoning his divisive plan to sell World Cup profits to private equity after receiving pushback from all corners of the soccer world.

Infantino’s decision came after his senior adviser who sat on a White House panel resigned and Asia’s soccer body joined Europe and North America in opposing it.

“Having listened carefully to all the views, it has become clear that the project has created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place,” Infantino said in a statement on Friday. “Our purpose has always been — and will always be — to unite and improve. As a result, this proposal will not proceed.”

Infantino had proposed creating a $20 billion company to run the World Cup with private investors including the Kushner family, but drew backlash that grew every day since Tuesday’s announcement.

UEFA’s 55-member nations agreed to boycott the World Cup and all other FIFA competitions over Infantino’s plan on Thursday. North America’s CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation also said they opposed the plan.

“Some things are simply too important to sell,” UEFA said in a statement. “The FIFA World Cup belongs to football. It always will. And so long as Europe has a voice, it will never be for sale.”

Infantino’s senior adviser, Carlos Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs banker who represented the soccer body on the White House Task Force for the World Cup, resigned on Friday and urged other senior FIFA staff to speak out.

“I cannot stand by while FIFA considers selling a stake in the World Cup,” Cordeiro said in a statement, just hours after FIFA insisted: “Nobody is selling football.”

Hours later, FIFA chief operating officer Kevin Lamour issued a statement to The Associated Press, saying FIFA staff were deceived by Infantino’s lack of openness in planning the sale over recent months and that the project must not continue.

“It is the project of one person,” Lamour, a longtime colleague of Infantino at both FIFA and European soccer body UEFA, wrote. “Not only must this project not go ahead … but the time has now come for football political leaders to ask themselves the right questions and make the right decisions.”

Infantino has proposed spinning off FIFA’s commercial businesses — including World Cups and Club World Cups for men and women — into a $20 billion subsidiary with 20% owned by private investors.

The “anchor investor,” described by FIFA, is a New York-based investment firm created by Joshua Kushner, the younger brother of U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

The next FIFA competition is the Women’s Under-20 World Cup starting Sept. 5 in Poland — which UEFA members said they would boycott.

The misstep could prove costly for Infantino, particularly after the interventions by Lamour and Cordeiro.

Reelected unopposed in 2019 and 2023, Infantino is allowed one more four-year term under FIFA statutes. The deadline for the next presidential contest is Nov. 18, exactly four months ahead of the vote in Rabat, Morocco, where FIFA has its African headquarters.

Infantino’s job seemed secured despite long-term unease with his style and previous attempts to force through unpopular projects, but could become more tenuous with the failed private equity proposal. (JapanToday)

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Putin accuses Europeans of sabotaging peace efforts on Ukraine; meets U.S. delegation

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Kyiv’s European allies Tuesday of sabotaging U.S.-led efforts to end the nearly 4-year-old war in Ukraine, shortly before he met with a delegation sent by President Donald Trump.

“They don’t have a peace agenda, they’re on the side of the war,” Putin said of the Europeans prior to talks in the Kremlin with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Putin’s accusations appeared to be his latest attempt to sow dissension between Trump and European countries and set the stage for exempting Moscow from blame for any lack of progress.

He accused Europe of amending peace proposals with “demands that are absolutely unacceptable to Russia,” thus “blocking the entire peace process” and blaming Moscow for it.

“That’s their goal,” Putin said.

He reiterated his long-held position that Russia has no plans to attack Europe — a concern regularly voiced by some European countries.

“But if Europe suddenly wants to wage a war with us and starts it, we are ready right away. There can be no doubt about that,” Putin said.

Russia started the war in 2022 with its full-scale invasion of a sovereign European country, and European governments have since spent billions of dollars to support Ukraine financially and militarily, to wean themselves from energy dependence on Russia, and to strengthen their own militaries to deter Moscow from seizing more territory by force.

They worry that if Russia gets what it wants in Ukraine, it will have free rein to threaten or disrupt other European countries, which already have faced incursions from Russian drones and fighter jets, and an alleged widespread Russian sabotage campaign.

Trump’s peace plan relies on Europe to provide the bulk of the financing and security guarantees for a postwar Ukraine, even though no Europeans appear to have been consulted on the original plan. That’s why European governments have pushed to ensure that peace efforts address their concerns, too.

Speaking with Putin via a translator before the talks, Witkoff said he and Kushner had taken “a beautiful walk” around Moscow and described it as a “magnificent city.”

Coinciding with Witkoff’s trip, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went to Ireland, continuing his visits to European countries that have helped sustain his country’s fight against Russia’s invasion.

In what could be a high-stakes day of negotiations, Zelenskyy said he was expecting swift reports later Tuesday from the U.S. envoys in Moscow on whether talks could move forward, after Trump’s initial 28-point plan was whittled down to 20 items in Sunday’s talks between U.S. and Ukrainian officials in Florida.

“They want to report right after that meeting to us, specifically. The future and the next steps depend on these signals. Such steps will change throughout today, even hour by hour, I believe,” Zelenskyy said at a news conference in Dublin with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin.

“If the signals show fair play with our partners, we then might meet very soon, meet with the American delegation,” he said.

“There is a lot of dialogue, but we need results. Our people are dying every day,” Zelenskyy said. “I am ready … to meet with President Trump. It all depends on today’s talks.”

After months of frustration in trying to stop the fighting, Trump deployed officials to get traction for his peace proposals. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin’s talks with Witkoff and Kushner would take “as long as needed.”

The talks have followed parallel lines so far, with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sitting down with Ukrainian officials. (JapanToday)

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Private equity consortium offers to buy Electronic Arts for $80 billion

Electronic Arts, the company behind video games like Madden NFL, Battlefield and The Sims, is being acquired for $US52.5 billion ($80 billion), in what could become the largest-ever buyout funded by private-equity firms.

The private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF, and Affinity Partners will pay EA’s stockholders $US210 per share.

Affinity Partners is run by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

If the transaction closes as anticipated, it will end EA’s 36-year history as a publicly traded company.

PIF, which was already the largest insider stakeholder in Electronic Arts, will be rolling over its existing 9.9 per cent stake in the company.

The commitment to the massive deal is in line with recent activity by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, wrote Andrew Marok of Raymond James.

“The Saudi PIF has been a very active player in the video gaming market since 2022, taking minority stakes in most scaled public video gaming publishers, and also outright purchases of companies like ESL, FACEIT, and Scopely,” he wrote.

“The PIF has made its intentions to scale its gaming arm, Savvy Gaming Group, clear, and the EA deal would represent the biggest such move to date by some distance.”

Electronic Arts would be taken private and its headquarters would remain in Redwood City, California.

The total value of the deal eclipses the $US32 billion price paid to take Texas utility TXU private in 2007.

EA’s initial public offering on the stock market came seven years after it was founded by former Apple employee William “Trip” Hawkins, who began playing analog versions of baseball and football made by Strat-O-Matic as a teenager during the 1960s.

Chief executive Andrew Wilson has led the company since 2013 and he will remain in that role, the firms said on Monday, local time.

“Electronic Arts is an extraordinary company with a world-class management team and a bold vision for the future,” Mr Kushner, who serves as CEO of Affinity Partners, said.

“I’ve admired their ability to create iconic, lasting experiences, and as someone who grew up playing their games — and now enjoys them with his kids — I couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead.”

This marks the second high-profile deal involving Silver Lake and a technology company with a legion of loyal fans in recent weeks.

Silver Lake is also part of a newly formed joint venture spearheaded by Oracle involved in a deal to take over the US oversight of TikTok’s social video platform, although all the details of that complex transaction have not been divulged yet. (ABC)