Thrive's Kushner defends FIFA role, hires Musk's go-to lawyer

New York venture firm Thrive Capital has been pulled into a dispute that could result in criminal charges against Gianni Infantino, the controversial president of global soccer organization FIFA. Thrive’s founder, Josh Kushner, said this week in a statement that he still believes the original idea was sound and would have been good for global soccer, but that “had we known what this would devolve into, we would not have gotten involved.”

The dispute centers on Infantino’s failed plan to create FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), a corporate entity that would have owned commercial rights to FIFA competitions like the World Cup, including TV-rights and ticket-sales revenue. FFE would have been fully owned by FIFA’s member associations, which would have had the option to sell some of their shares to private investors — a sale the associations would first have had to vote to approve. FIFA engaged JPMorgan to drum up investors, and Thrive agreed to be a lead, though not sole, investor in a potential $4.2 billion purchase of secondary shares from the associations, representing 20% of FFE at a $20 billion valuation.

European teams, which benefit disproportionately under FIFA’s current structure, along with an association including North American teams, grew outraged over the potential influence of outside investors, particularly private equity, and the plan was scrapped before member associations could vote on it. FIFA’s chief operating officer, Kevin Lamour, was reportedly fired after criticizing Infantino and the plan. FIFA has 211 member associations worldwide, with 55 in the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and 41 in the North American confederation Concacaf.

UEFA is now pursuing legal action against Infantino and attempting to mount some kind of criminal case, according to the BBC. One of UEFA’s claims in its suit is that the proposed company’s valuation was too low, the BBC reports, and UEFA has asked a U.S. federal court to compel parties to hand over documents on how the valuation was derived, deal communications such as term sheets, and the identities of other potential investors — a request that has drawn Thrive into the case.

Kushner’s statement framed FFE as an attempt to direct more capital equally among all 211 member countries, and said the plan was something every member association would have voted on, not an obligation. Thrive has since retained lawyer Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel, best known for representing Elon Musk in cases including the “pedo guy” defamation suit and litigation over Musk’s Twitter acquisition, along with clients such as Jay-Z, Alec Baldwin, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Why it matters

A venture firm’s early-stage bet on restructuring FIFA’s finances has turned into a legal exposure that now includes a criminal-case threat against soccer’s top official, showing how fast an investor’s reputational and legal risk can escalate once a deal collapses under political pressure.