The General Secretary of the Football Association of Maldives (FAM) Ahmed Zareer has stated that the FAM has not come to a decision as of yet regarding FIFA President Gianni Infantino's three latest proposals.
FIFA made an announcement on Tuesday that they were going to sell World Cup and other FIFA tournament stakes to private investors.
FIFA created the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), a semi-private subsidiary where shares will be sold via the company, with the aim to generate USD 4.2 billion for FIFA by the end of the year.
The main target of the project is to accumulate a total of USD 20 billion, as was said by FIFA.
FIFA went on to say that shares will be sold in a way where the company buying the shares will not receive any control of FIFA. FIFA also said that investors will be found on requirements that are built upon transactions where complete trust and care are the priority.
FIFA made the sudden announcement of this plan after a relevant report was published by the United Kingdom's (UK) The Times and Financial Times newspapers. As per The Times, shares of the FFE will be bought by Joshua Kushner's investment company Thrive Capital, and influential bank from the United States of America (USA) JPMorgan Chase Bank. Joshua Kushner is the younger brother of Jared Kushner, son-in-law of the President of the USA Donald Trump.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said while the plan has been announced, discussions for such a plan had never been held by FIFA, and that they found out when it was published on the news.
The plan can only be implemented via votes from FIFA's member nations. Infantino has said that the plan will be presented during the Congress in September.
The plan will be passed if 50 percent of the member associations from the 211 countries agree during the voting process. Prior to that, the proposal will be presented to the FIFA Council, which consists of 38 members.
UK newspaper The Independent has stated that Infantino sent a letter to FIFA's 211 member countries regarding the plan, and that they received a copy of the letter.
The Independent said that Infantino wrote in the letter stating member associations who vote for the plan will receive financial aid totaling USD 20 million as a lump sum.
Zareer said that FAM has not come to a decision as of yet whether they support the FFE's regulation.
The other proposal from Infantino is to increase the number of nations that can participate in the World Cup to 64. The 2026 World Cup saw 48 teams participate, with Infantino having announced that they are thinking of adding on 16 teams for the next World Cup onward.
Some football institutions have expressed that they are against this.
This proposal will also be passed via a vote of FIFA's member nations.
Infantino has announced that he will be running for his fourth term as President of FIFA during next year's election. Media reports have stated that he has support from many countries, even though he has many allegations against him.
Al Jazeera said in June that AFC's member countries support Infantino in bulk.
However, Zareer said that FAM has not reached a decision regarding support for Infantino.
"No official decision has been made yet regarding these matters," said FAM's General Secretary and International Relations Manager Zareer when he was asked about FAM's standing regarding the plan to create the FFE, increasing the World Cup's teams to 64 and support toward Infantino.
