Real Madrid applauds FIFA's World Cup rights U-turn and uses it to attack LaLiga's CVC deal

FIFA's proposal and swift reversal

FIFA announced on Tuesday, 28 July 2026, the creation of FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), a subsidiary that would open the door to private investors by selling partial commercial rights of its competitions, including the World Cup and the Club World Cup. The plan met immediate resistance. CONMEBOL, CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) all voiced opposition, while UEFA went further: together with its 55 member federations, it declared it would not participate in FIFA competitions if the proposal moved forward. On Friday, 31 July, Carlos Cordeiro, senior advisor to FIFA president Gianni Infantino, resigned in protest, describing the plan as "a bad deal for football". By Saturday, 1 August, Infantino had cancelled the project entirely.

Real Madrid welcomes the decision

On Sunday, Real Madrid issued an official statement praising the reversal. The club said it "very positively values the decision taken by FIFA to abandon the proposal for the partial sale of the commercial rights of its competitions" and called it "a good piece of news for football, for its institutions and, above all, for the millions of fans of our beloved sport".

“Real Madrid wishes to express its gratitude to UEFA, to the confederations and federations, and to all the institutions that opposed this project firmly and responsibly. Their unity and their sense of duty have protected football at a decisive moment.”

The statement stressed that clubs are the foundation of national-team football and the World Cup, as they discover, train and develop the players who make those competitions possible. It argued that the World Cup and international football are events of public interest, a heritage belonging to nations, fans and society as a whole, and must never be treated as mere financial assets to be traded for the benefit of a few.

The CVC parallel and LaLiga criticism

Real Madrid used the moment to draw a direct comparison with LaLiga's CVC deal, which it had refused to join. The club recalled that it "opposed and did not participate in the operation by which LaLiga committed a percentage of the clubs' future audiovisual revenues for fifty years in exchange for the entry of a private fund such as CVC".

“Mortgaging for half a century revenues that belong to the clubs, which bear all the costs and risks, constitutes a precedent that football must not repeat, whether in our country or internationally.”

The statement reignites the long-running feud between Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez and LaLiga president Javier Tebas. While Real Madrid has itself explored selling a 10% stake in the club to investors, the club insists any such move must not compromise the public-interest nature of the sport or offload future revenues without assuming the associated costs and risks.

Broader governance tensions

The episode highlights deep tensions over the commercialisation of football governance. FIFA's proposal, the coordinated pushback from confederations, and the resignation of a senior advisor all unfolded within a single week. Real Madrid's statement, while welcoming the outcome, also served to reinforce its own institutional stance: that football's revenues belong to the clubs and the communities they represent, not to private funds seeking long-term returns.