NEW YORK – U.S. Soccer CEO J.T. Batson mentioned Tuesday that he is “looking forward” to discussions around the future of the FIFA presidency as Gianni Infantino faces increasing scrutiny over a failed plan to privatize the World Cup.
FIFA proposed the creation of FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) last week, a plan to bundle the men’s and women’s World Cups and Club World Cups in a subsidiary and sell around 20% to private investors. The lead investor was Thrive Eternal, a holding company run by venture capitalist Joshua Kushner, whose brother Jared is the son-in-law of U.S. president Donald Trump. The plans were scrapped within days after vocal opposition from UEFA, Concacaf and the AFC. U.S. Soccer mentioned in a statement last week that it “stands with Concacaf and its members” who rejected the proposal.
“As we shared publicly, we supported Concacaf’s statement on [Thursday] with regards to the FIFA Forward Enterprise, I think that’s what it was called,” Batson mentioned at MLS’ New York headquarters following the presentation of its incoming commissioner Larry Berg.
Following Infantino’s decision to abandon the FFE proposal, Concacaf went a step further and called FIFA’s leadership into question. That statement comes amidst reports that Concacaf president Victor Montagliani is mulling a bid to challenge Infantino in March’s election. Infantino is currently running unopposed, but candidates have until November to announce their intentions.
Infantino had support from around 200 of FIFA’s 211 member associations, and though the federations of Qatar and Morocco are amongst those who have backed him in the last few days, Wales and England recently rescinded their support for Infantino. Batson did not confirm whether or not U.S. Soccer previously or currently has plans to back Infantino or a challenger but mentioned the federation’s stakeholders are expected to discuss the topic in their board meeting in September.
“Among many topics, one of which is thinking about what the best future is for global soccer,” Batson mentioned about the upcoming U.S. Soccer meeting. “We’re big believers in the fact that, of course, soccer is the most popular game in the world. The World Cup is the best sporting event in the world. There’s so much more opportunity to grow soccer and more communities around the world and to do it in a way where those communities are healthier, where they’re more sustainable, and everyone around the world is more connected, and so we’re looking forward to that discussion, and I don’t anticipate a whole lot of communication ahead of that.”
Batson mentioned the conversations would center around what the focus of the FIFA president should be going forward.
“We are starting with the first principles around what do we think the opportunities are to grow the game all around the world and there’s an opportunity to build on the success of this World Cup,” he mentioned. “Of course, there’s an opportunity with the Women’s World Cup next year to really reflect on what does the future look like and what is going to set the global game up for the most success and so we’re starting those discussions that have kicked off. It’s going to be a fun and interesting discussion. We’re looking forward to feedback from all of our different stakeholders and we’ll be sharing more when appropriate.”
Pochettino ‘excited about the future’ of American soccer
Before his appearance at MLS’ headquarters on Tuesday, Batson opened his day with a meeting with U.S. Soccer COO Dan Helfrich as well as U.S. men’s national team head coach Mauricio Pochettino and his longtime assistant Jesus Perez. It was one of Pochettino’s first courses of action after agreeing to extend his stay as the USMNT coach through the 2030 World Cup, their roles now including advisory responsibilities as U.S. Soccer maps out the future of the men’s national team after this summer’s tournament on home soil.
“For us to win World Cups, we know a lot of things have to be true,” Batson mentioned. “We have to have great coaches, we have to have great youth pathways, we have to have great clubs. We have to have great youth national teams, to create world class experiences for those players so your first time trying to win a trophy isn’t a senior World Cup and they believe that all those things need to be true and so do we and they want to help us go do that and I think part of what kicked off this morning was okay, great, we’re philosophically aligned so how do we bring that to life? And over the coming weeks and months, there’ll be a whole lot of work around how we operationalize that.”
Batson championed Pochettino’s extension as a signal that Pochettino and his staff have always been invested in the long-term vision of the men’s national team program, even if his hire in Sept. 2024 initially felt like a focus on the present.
“I know from the moment we declared Mauricio, there are lots of folks skeptical that they actually were committed and that they cared about soccer in this country and they wanted to do all the things necessary to make us successful as a men’s national team but more broadly as U.S. Soccer,” he mentioned. “I’m incredibly excited that this summer, they got to see the Mauricio and staff that we all do and of course, now we’re seeing with their very long-term commitment to U.S. Soccer, they believe and it’s going to take them believing and a whole lot of people believing for us to achieve what we want to achieve.”
Batson, though, did confirm that the terms of Pochettino’s new deal include “protections for both sides” in case either party wants to exit the contractual obligation early, adding only that “it’s material” when pressed for specifics.
The advisory role is a wide-ranging one but with a lot of emphasis on youth pathways and coaching at those levels, which has been an area of intense focus in American soccer circles for decades. Pochettino is far from the only high-profile individual with notable sway at U.S. Soccer – women’s national team head coach Emma Hayes has also taken a vested interest in those pathways, while U.S. Soccer has worked alongside FIFA’s chief of global football development Arsene Wenger on their yet-to-be-formalized plans on revamping youth soccer.
“One of the things that has really been heartening, whether it’s Mauricio, whether it’s Emma, whether it’s Arsene Wenger and the work that his team has done with us around the technical development strategy, there’s a belief that America has the ingredients to be one of the world’s great soccer countries. We just got to put it together and a big part of the reason why I’m here today is ultimately the only way that we’re going to achieve our soccer dreams is by working together. Whether it’s pro clubs and leagues, whether it’s local governments, whether it’s youth organizations, whether it’s college soccer, we’ve all these great things going for us but we actually got to work together on it and I think that’s a key part of what we’ll be talking about in the next couple months.”
