FIFA's $20bn World Cup gambit: Private equity, profiteering 'against real essence of football'

As France24 reported on Thursday, FIFA is considering a twenty-billion-dollar private equity proposal for the World Cup. James Reade, an economics professor at the University of Reading, argues this raises fundamental questions about ownership and the competition's purpose. He warns that introducing private investors could reframe the World Cup purely as a commercial asset designed to return profits to shareholders, a shift he sees as contrary to football's core values.

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