Consultation

GENEVA — Pressure on FIFA President Gianni Infantino and his divisive plan to sell World Cup profits to private equity grew Friday as his senior adviser who sat on a White House panel resigned and Asia’s soccer body joined Europe and North America in opposing it.

An expanding crisis for soccer’s governing body reached into Infantino’s longtime inner circle when his pick to represent FIFA on the White House Task Force for the World Cup walked away calling the Joshua Kushner-backed $20 billion commercial subsidiary plan “a bad deal for football.”

Carlos Cordeiro is a former Goldman Sachs banker and officially is Infantino’s senior adviser yet revealed he said he was not involved in the secretive investment plan that has rocked the sport since media reports revealed it Tuesday.

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

Cordeiro’s exit — and call for other senior staff to speak out — intensified scrutiny on Infantino one day after European soccer body UEFA threatened to boycott all FIFA games and events until the plan is dropped. North America’s CONCACAF also rejected Infantino’s offer of one-off $20 million payments to each member federation by a mid-September deadline.

Cordeiro often joined Infantino on working visits to meet U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in recent years, and took part in meetings of the administration’s World Cup task force led by Andrew Guiliani.

“Let me be clear. I had no involvement in this proposal, and I oppose it unequivocally,” said Cordeiro, the former U.S. Soccer Federation president.

Asia joins Europe and North America

On another seismic day in soccer politics, Asia’s soccer body that has been a key ally in Infantino’s 11-year presidency opposed the investor plan and said FIFA must urgently review its management style

The Asian Football Confederation said it “stands in solidarity” with UEFA and CONCACAF, the first two continental bodies to oppose Infantino whose combined 90 FIFA member countries near a majority of the 211 global total.

“Football should never have been placed in such a position,” said the Asian soccer body, which counts 46 of FIFA’s 211 members

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 Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

“[T]he proposed [FIFA Forward Enterprise] cannot realistically achieve the necessary broad consensus and unity required to move forward” and must be reconsidered, the AFC said.

The statement did not name Infantino yet criticized FIFA for problems beyond the content of the private equity plan plus failing to consult about the secretive proposal.

“Rather, it has exposed fundamental weaknesses in FIFA’s consultation and decision-making processes that must now be addressed,” said the AFC, whose longtime president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa narrowly lost the FIFA presidential election to Infantino in 2016.

“Accordingly, the AFC calls upon FIFA to undertake an urgent review of its governance and decision-making framework,” said the organization based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Infantino’s job at risk?

Infantino had seemed — 11 days ago after the World Cup final in East Rutherford, N.J. — to have a clear path to being reelected unopposed for a fourth and final term in office through 2031.

FIFA had briefed during the tournament that Infantino had letters of support from about 200 members, despite a furor over letting U.S. forward Folarin Balogun play against Belgium even though he received a red card in his previous game. Trump acknowledged asking Infantino to review Balogun’s mandatory one-game ban.

FIFA has set a Nov. 18 deadline for potential candidates to declare in a presidential vote of the 211 members scheduled next March in Rabat, Morocco.

The Asian statement came hours after FIFA blamed the media and doubled down on pursuing the project which now seems to have a majority of the 211 in opposition.

“Our planned consultation process was disrupted by incorrect media reports,” FIFA said in a statement early Friday. “We will proceed with this consultation process to ensure that each [member] has the ability to express its vote based on facts.”

The next FIFA event that would be targeted by the threatened European boycott is within weeks — the Women’s Under-20 World Cup hosted by Poland from Sept. 5. The four British federations comprise FIFA’s only bidder to host the 2035 Women’s World Cup. That decision is due Nov. 23.

Dunbar writes for the Associated Press.

Mérida, May 21, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez announced that on 12 July the country will conduct its second popular consultation of the year to fund local projects. 

The Venezuelan leader made the announcement during the inauguration of the “City of Entrepreneurship” at the Giant Cacique Tiuna commune in Caracas on Monday, an event with local small-scale entrepreneurs. The upcoming vote follows the first consultation of 2026, which took place on March 8 in 5,336 communal circuits.

“I am pleased to announce that the second popular consultation will take place on July 12. So, everyone should prepare for this national consultation,” Rodríguez stated. “It will be open to projects in any of the Seven Transformations,” she added, referring to the government’s development plan across different areas.

A significant development for the upcoming vote is the incorporation of new types of organizations into the process. The acting president announced that the consultation will include 120,000 condominium boards and 15,000 neighbor associations, emphasizing the importance of consolidating a “common effort” alongside traditional communal projects. Following the March 8 consultation, Rodríguez pledged to expand the process to traditionally middle-class areas where there is no grassroots organization.

Popular consultations have become the main mechanism of government policy to transfer funds to grassroots organizations. Prior to the vote, communities hold assemblies to identify the local priorities, traditionally focusing on infrastructure, public services, or supplying healthcare facilities.

The most-voted initiative receives the equivalent of US $10,000, with the local organizations charged with executing the projects and rendering accounts. According to official figures, the Venezuelan government supported 33,743 initiatives in 2025. On some occasions, state, regional, and municipal offices have funded the second-place projects in several communes.

The upcoming July vote will be the seventh national consultation since the mechanism was consolidated, following two rounds in 2024 and three in 2025.

Venezuelan authorities have yet to specify whether the condominium boards and neighbor associations will access similar funding and if all will be eligible to participate. Their jurisdiction and ability to access state funds have yet to be defined. The move to expand the consultation to organizations in traditionally middle-class apartment complexes and residential areas bypasses the communal instances envisioned by former President Hugo Chávez as “unit cells” for the construction of socialism.

New Phase of ‘National Pilgrimage’

The announcement of the July consultation coincided with the launch of a second phase of the “Great National Pilgrimage” to defend peace and oppose sanctions. The pilgrimage, a large-scale political mobilization strategy, began the new stage on 19 May with a special emphasis on dialogue with the productive sectors of the economy.

According to Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, this new phase differs from the first stage, which concluded on April 30, by expanding its reach to non-metropolitan areas and focusing on specific regional economic activities such as fishing, agriculture, and the oil industry.

During a rally in the western state of Zulia on Tuesday, Cabello explained that the objective is to establish direct engagement with the population, independent of political affiliation, and to channel proposals on public services, security, and financing to the Rodríguez administration.

At the same time, the Caribbean nation’s acting president held meetings in Bolívar state with the aluminum conductor company Cabelum. She stated that the pilgrimage aimed to go “to the heart of productive Venezuela” to identify structural obstacles and promote productivity. In recent months, the Venezuelan National Assembly has approved several pro-business reforms with the stated purpose of attracting private sector investment, both national and foreign.

Rodríguez explicitly linked the pilgrimage’s goals to the need for diplomatic dialogue with the Trump administration to request a removal of unilateral coercive measures, which she lamented have imposed a “very high cost” on the Venezuelan population.

The pilgrimage, which also includes mass assemblies and the collection of proposals for public management, is expected to run alongside the preparations for the upcoming July consultation. Venezuelan authorities have defended the initiative as an effort to reach out to other political factions under common national goals.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.