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FIFA Under Fire Over Plan To Sell World Cup Stakes

Published

9 minutes ago

July 29, 2026

Controversial plans to sell stakes in the FIFA World Cup to private investors have sparked a furious response from football authorities and politicians.

UEFA, the body that governs European football, took the unprecedented step of releasing a statement condemning FIFA’s plan, which involves creating a new entity that would house the commercial rights to its men’s and women’s tournaments. The World Cup “is not FIFA’s to sell,” said UEFA.

JP Morgan Chase, the bank that financed the failed breakaway European Super League in 2021, is working with FIFA to create the business, which is being valued at around $20B, per various reports. Though the World Cup is not a commercial enterprise, the formation of FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) would allow it to be exploited by private investors.

FIFA confirmed the plan to create FFE and said it would be the controlling shareholder, but the controversial governing body hopes to raise $4.2B by “carefully selecting long-term investors who will purchase minority, non-controlling interests.”

Thrive Capital, an investment firm led by Joshua Kusher, the brother of President Donald Trump‘s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has been approached about investing, it is reported. We have contacted Thrive for comment.

Investigations in the Financial Times and The Times newspapers first revealed the FFE plan, which comes on the back of the recent World Cup.

New UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham was among notable names slamming FFE, writing that the World Cup is “not a product, and that “once you have sold a piece of it, you have sold out.” Even Sepp Blatter, the disgraced predecessor of FIFA President Gianni Infantino, wrote on social media: “The close relationship between the FIFA President and the US President has reached a financial dimension that is deeply damaging football. No one has the right to sell our game.”

Under-fire FIFA President Infantino stands to personally make millions from the deal by becoming its commissioner after his expected third term at football’s governing body expires in 2031, the Times reported. We have contacted FIFA for comment.

Infantino said FFE would see “the commercial side of the game [operate] as a focused, dedicated business, with its value shared more and better all around the world,” with FIFA claiming more than $10B would be redistributed back to its 211 member associations following the deals.

The recent World Cup in the U.S., Canada and Mexico was heavily criticized in some quarters for the implementation of mandatory drinks breaks, which effectively divided matches into quarters rather than the traditional halves, for Trump’s intervention into the suspension of USMNT player Folarin Balogun and the extended half-time break in the final to allow for musical performances. UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin boycotted the final in response to the various issues.

FIFA made record revenues from the tournament, which it has touted publicly. Critics say finances are being put before the best interests of the game.

UEFA considers World Cup boycott

It has been reported today that UEFA members are meeting to discuss their response to FIFA’s plan, with a boycott of the World Cup one serious option on the table.

While UEFA cannot stop it moving ahead, it is the strongest continental body in football with many of the world’s top international teams hailing from the continent.

Of the eight quarter finalists at the World Cup, six were UEFA members, and Spain won the tournament. There were similar statistics in the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, and a World Cup without European participation would be a huge commercial and political hit to FIFA. The next World Cup is due to be held in Spain, Portugal and Morocco, with other games held in South America.

In its statement in response to FFE, UEFA said: “This crosses a line that football’s governing institutions should never cross. UEFA takes it extremely seriously. The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade – especially with zero transparency as to who gains financially. None of us are the owners of football. It is not FIFA’s to sell.”

European dominance of world football has been a sore point for many years, and the Swiss-born Infantino has consolidated his power base by redirecting more funding and support to Africa, the Americas and Asia. It is expected that FFE would need to be ratified by a majority of FIFA members, though there’s no word on when or how the vote will take shape.

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Kavinsky: French DJ Best Known For ‘Nightcall’ Track Dies At 50

Published

17 minutes ago

July 29, 2026

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French DJ Kavinsky, who was best known internationally for his ‘Nightcall’ track which opened Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2011 film Drive, has died at the age of 50.

French media reported that the music artist, producer and DJ was found dead at his home in Paris on Tuesday evening (July 28).

The Paris Prosecutors Office said in a statement said that an investigation had been opened into the cause of his death, noting that “first responders found no suspicious elements at the scene”.

Born Vincent Belorgey in Paris on July 31, 1975, Kavinsky was a key figure in the French Touch electro music scene alongside the likes of Daft Punk.

He achieved worldwide fame with his 2010 ‘Nightcall’ track after Winding Refn used it for his 2011 film Drive starring Ryan Gosling opposite Carey Mulligan as a Hollywood stunt driver moonlighting as a getaway driver.

Kavinsky had released the track – produced by Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem-Chriso – the previous year.

His cinema connections preceded the Drive breakout through his long collaborative friendship with musician and DJ turned director Quentin Dupieux. He acted in Dupieux’s 2007 picture Steak, which also featured his music.

More recently, he made a cameo appearance in Netflix French-language original Banger opposite Vincent starring Vincent Cassel as a jaded DJ.

Across his career, Kavinsky released two albums: ‘OutRun’ in 2013 and ‘Reborn’ in 2022. The latter featured ‘Nightcall’ and was, according to the music artist, influenced by 1980s video games, cop shows such as Miami Vice, and the films of Dario Argento.

Kavinsky’s recent musical engagements include performing at the closing ceremony of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games as part of a celebration of French electronic music at the Stade de France.

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Laura Marcus Behind Channel 4 Comedy Blap ‘F**k Ups’

Published

33 minutes ago

July 29, 2026

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EXCLUSIVE: Laura Marcus, star of Netflix’s upcoming Assassin’s Creed adaptation, has landed her first Channel 4 comedy.

Marcus is creating and starring in a Channel 4 Blap titled F**k Ups, about a teen, Miracle June Jones, who has dedicated her entire existence to greatness. Soon, however, she is forced to face the horrifying reality that even the most disciplined can mess up. Trapped in her dead-end town for another year, Miracle must endure the one thing she’s spent her life avoiding: her relentlessly enthusiastic neighbor and self-appointed best friend, Lillian Cheeks.

Marcus stars opposite Molly Hewitt-Richards (The Virgins), Alexander Arnold (Skins), Sophie Thompson (Detectorists) and Mark Benton (Smoggie Queens), and the Blap is directed by Will Wightman, who recently directed SNL UK stars Paddy Young and Jack Shep in This Place is a Sh*thole. The pilot is partially based on a short film Marcus made during the pandemic with producer Daniel Sved.

Marcus’ star is on the rise. She recently landed a series regular role in Netflix’s live action adaptation of Assassin’s Creed and has appeared in Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping and Netflix mini-series Death by Lightning.

Channel 4 Blaps are a pathway to landing a full series. Recent examples include flatshare comedy Break Clause from Jess Bray and Starstruck co-writer Alice Snedden.

Marcus described F**ck Ups as an “adrenaline fuelled love letter to being the lamest rats in town.” “To see it in a shiny new Channel 4 format is a bit of a fever dream,” she added. “With that said, we could not have asked for a better team of people from casting; crew; our incredibly gifted actors; the insane soundtrack from Lynks; brilliant creative producing from Dan, Leah and Jeremy; and of course, the off the wall direction from Will.”

F**k Ups is produced by Bristol-based Calling the Shots Films. The producers are Bafta-nominated Leah Draws (Funboys) and RTS Award-winner Sved (Spare Part). Jeremy Routledge is executive producer, with Andy Brereton as commissioning editor. Lynks composed the soundtrack.

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‘Bloody Tennis,’ Fairy Tales, Tunis Horror: Quirky Locarno 2026 Films

Published

41 minutes ago

July 29, 2026

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The Locarno Film Festival, whose 79th edition takes place Aug. 5-15, always features world premieres from around the world by established and up-and-coming auteurs, new hidden gems and cinematic discoveries, along with highlights from the festival circuit.

But audiences can also expect the unexpected. After all, Locarno also features quirky, edgy and offbeat movies just waiting to unspool.

So, buckle up for a ride on the wilder and more unorthodox side of the cinematic spectrum as THR presents its look at some of the more unusual-sounding films at Locarno79.

Wandering Trees (Alberi erranti)
Director: Salvatore
Section: International competition

‘Wandering Trees,’ courtesy of Locarno Film Festival

Once upon a time in Sardinia. Piero and his son Giuliano lived alone in a farmhouse filled with injured animals that they cared for. But the local notables wanted to drive them out because they lived like vagrants. One day, snow fell, and Piero disappeared, while the animals were killed. So, Giuliano had no choice but to search for his father. On his journey, he met Maddalena, and it was love at first sight.

Giuliano’s dreamlike search across a wounded landscape explores the wonder and special experience of childhood, a time in life that provides a possibility of resistance against the violence of the adult world.

The filmmaker puts it into magical images – and words. “To tell a love story, you mustn’t be afraid to open up emotionally,” says Mereu, who also wrote the script with Alberto Capitta, in a director’s note. “But to embark on a fairy tale, you need to risk something. When you accept its rules, you have to accept everything – even the unthinkable.”

Objet A
Director: Ann Oren
Section: International competition

‘Object A’

Courtesy of Juan Sarmiento G./Schuldenberg Films

Ready for a bold, playful and stylized excursion into fragile relationships between humans as well as humans and nature, intimacy, desire, identity – and kleptomania – that uses the body as the core of its cinematic language? Well, Objet A is ready to bend your mind and leave you unsettled!

“Ingeborg and Adam are visionary hand surgeons bound by love, control and irresistible fixations,” teases a synopsis. But there is more: “She is compelled to steal objects; he longs to become one. When an accident brings the enigmatic Gaia into their lives, unexpected desires begin to take shape, unsettling the careful balance that has long defined their relationship.”

Berlin-based visual artist and filmmaker Ann Oren (Piaffe) returns to Locarno to serve up a film, which she wrote with Geoffroy Grison, that features cinematography by Juan Sarmiento G. (The Voice of Hind Rajab, A Poet) and editing by Hansjörg Weißbrich (Rose, Late Shift). It stars Aenne Schwarz (All Is Well, Every You Every Me) as Ingeborg, Louis Hofmann (All the Light We Cannot See, The Forger, Dark), and Simone Bucio (Piaffe, The Ivy) as Gaia. “I’m interested in human desire and how it connects us to other species,” Oren says in a director’s note. “The human body is the starting point for my cinematic language: the more control we have over it, the more we separate ourselves from the natural world.”

Bloody Tennis
Director: Nikias Chryssos
Section: Out of competition

‘Bloody Tennis,’ courtesy of augenschein Filmproduktion

The world of elite sports is taken to disturbing new heights full of brutality and painful ambition in the new film from Nikias Chryssos (The Bunker, Rave On, A Pure Place). “Sophie joins a prestigious tennis academy where the brutality of competitive sports is taken to its extreme, and only the hungriest survive,” warns a synopsis.

Sandra Guldberg Kampp (Assassin’s Creed, Electric Child), Helena Zengel (News of the World, The Legend of Ochi, System Crasher) and others star in the movie, along with Elina Löwensohn (Schindler’s List), and Zlatko Burić (Triangle of Sadness), with an original score by Jim Williams (Titane, Raw).

If that’s not enough for you yet, the press notes also promise, or should that be: threaten, “blood-sucking leeches, hard-hitting serves and delicious nightmares.” Game on!

Bakma
Abdelhamid Bouchnak
Section: Out of competition

You have surely never seen Tunisia like this. And you likely haven’t seen a film from Tunisia like this before. What Bouchnak unleashes onto Locarno screens is an urban horror thriller, which he also wrote and edited, with cinematography by Chams Ghorab.

Animalistic violence takes on a different meaning in this movie. Commissioner Ali and Khaled investigate the ritualistic murder of a young woman. So far, so horrible. But there is more, as a synopsis highlights: “Her limbs have been severed, her head is missing, and in its place, the killer has grotesquely sewn the head of a dog.”

Locarno artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro, in unveiling this year’s festival lineup, highlighted said about Bakma: “It’s a film that, in a very specific way, addresses the political corruption in Tunis at the moment. It’s also a very bitter commentary on what’s left of the so-called Arab Spring that ignited the overthrow of some regimes – and, as you’ll remember, it originated in Tunis.”

Tomorrow a Long Time Ago (Morgen vor langer Zeit)
Director: Luise Donschen
Section: Filmmakers of the Present Competition

Not much dialogue is used, or needed, in the new film from Donschen (Casanovagen), which stars Gerti Drassl and Manuela Biedermann and others. After all, life and actions say more than words.

Amid German reunification in 1990, the 50-year-old Patty first loses her job and then her friend Jelena. “In a small East German town, she collects discarded objects and meets the younger Franz,” teases a synopsis. “When her flat becomes so full of belongings that she can no longer enter it, she sets out into a colorful forest. A journey through landscapes and history begins, carrying away more than just her.”

The movie has a personal dimension for the filmmaker who grew up in the GDR. “Inspired by my childhood experience of German reunification, the film captures the moment when the present splits into ‘before’ and ‘after’,” the moment when everything seems completely unseen and very familiar at the same time.”

Donkey Princess (Princesa Burro)
Directors: Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña
Section: International competition

‘Donkey Princess’

Courtesy of Benjamin Echazarreta

Once upon a time… wait a second, isn’t that how we started this journey into the mind- and genre-bending films at Locarno79!? But wait, this one is different, although love plays a key role again.

Diana is the princess of an ancient kingdom. Her father, King Arthur, has forbidden love. So, when Diana falls in love with Lalo, the King banishes him. A synopsis teases where things go from here: “Using a magical bracelet, Diana travels to other worlds in search of her love. Discovering that her father manipulates her decisions, she must face her fears and change her destiny.”

The travels of the protagonist allow the director duo to play with the look and feel of the places she visits. “Diana travels through parallel worlds where each universe transforms the film’s genre,” León and Cociña explain. “The film brings this constant mutation of realities into live action, where fantasy reshapes everything.”

So, who’s ready for a cinematic trip!?