WIFA Calls for Protecting Football from Excessive Commercialization - WIFA

Geneva — The Women’s International Football Association (WIFA) has issued an urgent call for broad-based dialogue among international, continental, and regional sporting stakeholders to develop best practices that will strengthen the role of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) in fostering a healthy and sustainable environment for the world’s most popular sport.

The call comes amid growing debate over FIFA’s reported plan to establish a subsidiary company to manage the FIFA World Cup, valued at approximately US$20 billion, and to sell minority stakes to external investors. The proposal has raised genuine concerns that it could disrupt the balance of power within global football and shift commercial influence away from the traditional continental confederations, particularly the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), which oversees the world’s most commercially valuable football competitions.

In a press statement issued today, Mohammed Al-Dulaimi, President of WIFA, stressed that the current disagreements and differing views surrounding the merits of FIFA’s proposals to significantly increase its financial revenues should remain within the framework of constructive and purposeful dialogue. He emphasized the importance of upholding the fundamental values of sport—love, peace, fair competition, and mutual respect—while avoiding rigidity and polarization.

Al-Dulaimi added:
“At WIFA, we look forward to participating in a meaningful and objective dialogue aimed at bridging the growing differences between FIFA, UEFA, and other leading international football figures and institutions.”
He further explained that the ultimate objective is to safeguard the world’s most popular sport from excessive commercial pressures that could undermine its integrity and noble mission, while preserving FIFA, with its historic institutional structure, as the legitimate global governing body that continues to guide football in the spirit of peace, dialogue, and sporting cooperation.