Benediction

FIFA tried to sell a stake in the World Cup to an investment firm run by Jared Kushner's brother. In three days, 143 national soccer federations lined up to say no.

The plan wasn't announced. It surfaced in the press.

Reporters revealed on Tuesday that FIFA president Gianni Infantino had been quietly building a scheme to spin the World Cup's commercial operations into a new $20 billion company, FIFA Forward Enterprise, and sell 20 percent of it to private investors.

The core investor: Thrive Capital, the New York firm created by Joshua Kushner, the younger brother of Trump's son-in-law. The deal would lock Thrive in for twelve years. JPMorgan is advising.

The world's soccer federations found out from the news. Then came the pressure.

Infantino gave all 211 of them until September 19 to approve, dangling more than $80 million each. Holdouts, they were warned, would forfeit an immediate $20 million. "It is my duty and responsibility as FIFA president to present such game-changing opportunities to you," he wrote them.

Europe answered first. On Thursday, all 55 UEFA member nations voted unanimously to boycott every FIFA competition, both World Cups included, until the plan dies.

More than 50 federations took the floor to object.

"It is not FIFA's to sell. None of us are the owners of football," UEFA's statement read. And then, plainly: "Some things are simply too important to sell."

Hours later came the region that just hosted the tournament. Concacaf's 41 members, the United States, Canada and Mexico among them, rejected the plan outright, citing "deep concerns about the lack of due process," an "artificially short deadline," and no review by FIFA's own governing bodies.

Then they asked the question with teeth: why does FIFA need private equity money at all, "following the most profitable FIFA World Cup in history"?

It was played here, last month, financed by American fans who paid up to $4,185 for a ticket to the final. Weeks after banking it, Infantino moved to sell the tournament's future, in secret, to the Kushner family.

Then Asia joined. The AFC's 47 members declared "solidarity with UEFA and CONCACAF," citing "fundamental weaknesses in FIFA's consultation and decision-making processes."

Count it: 143 of 211 federations. The plan needs a majority. There is no longer a path to one, and Concacaf members are reportedly losing confidence in Infantino himself.

This is the same Infantino who created a FIFA "peace prize" as part of his courtship of Trump's orbit. FIFA's answer to losing two-thirds of world soccer in three days: a statement insisting "nobody is selling" the game.

They are refusing, so far, to withdraw the sale.

Infantino gave the world until September 19 to say yes.

The world needed three days to say no.