Of course a Miami man is at the center of FIFA’s sellout scandal

It’s not often the internet agrees on anything. But after FIFA floated a plan to sell $20 billion in ownership stakes, soccer fans around the world have united in outrage — especially over one name reportedly being considered to buy in: Miami billionaire Joshua Kushner.

The proposal has left fans baffled. FIFA is technically a nonprofit under Swiss law, yet it’s exploring a deal that would allow outside investors to purchase stakes in soccer’s governing body as if it were a publicly traded company.

And because all (scandalous) roads lead to Miami, of course, FIFA named billionaire resident Kushner’s holding company, Thrive Eternal, as the one “expected to lead the proposed investor group,” according to the organization.

FIFA argues that the move would help fund soccer’s growth in underserved areas of the world. Critics argue the implementation would veer the sport toward the whims of the world’s elite and siphon power away from the working-class people who represent the overwhelming majority of soccer fans.

“Football is the world’s most popular sport and an extraordinary engine of human and social development,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in a statement. “Parts of the game have turned that popularity into remarkable commercial value — and we celebrate that success and want it to continue, because it lifts the whole game.

“Our job is to make sure the rest of football grows with it: FIFA exists to support sustainable, inclusive development in every corner of the world.”

The backlash was immediate from the rest of the soccer world, with other major organizations, such as Europe’s continental soccer authority, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), mulling plans for European teams to boycott the 2030 FIFA World Cup if the organization goes through with the proposal, according to ESPN.

Who is Joshua Kushner, the Miami man behind FIFA’s sellout plan?

Kushner, like his more famous older brother Jared, is a businessman and investor. While the Kushner family’s prominence began with his grandfather’s real estate empire, the family became a household name during President Donald Trump’s first term thanks to Jared (Trump’s son-in-law) and his involvement in the administration.

Joshua Kushner’s main claim to fame (if you exclude his family ties and marriage to supermodel Karlie Kloss) is his investment company Thrive Capital. The billion-dollar company, of which Thrive Eternal is an arm, invested about $1 billion in Sam Altman’s OpenAI.

In 2020, Kushner and Kloss bought a $23.5 million home on North Bay Road, which The Wall Street Journal dubbed “Miami’s Richest Road.” About five years later, he made another sizable Miami purchase, buying a reported minority stake in the Miami Heat (a team Forbes valued at about $5.7 billion at the time).

Kushner didn’t respond to a request for comment.