Олон улсын хөлбөмбөгийн холбоо 211 гишүүн орныг хамруулах залуучуудын шинэ тэмцээнийг хувийн хөрөнгө оруулалтаар санхүүжүүлэх боломжийг судалж байсан ч төлөвлөгөөгөө өөрчилжээ.
ФИФА-гийн ерөнхийлөгч Жанни Инфантино 15 хүртэлх насны хүүхдүүдийн дунд “Дэлхийн аварга” тэмцээн зохион байгуулах санаачилга гаргаж, үүнийг арилжааны томоохон төсөл болгох талаар хувийн хөрөнгө оруулагчидтай яриа хэлэлцээ хийж байв. Энэхүү тэмцээнийг бейсболын “Little League World Series”-тэй ижил хэлбэрээр зохион байгуулахаар төлөвлөж, Тодд Боэлигийн “Eldridge Industries” болон Мексикийн хөлбөмбөгийн холбооны экс комиссар Хуан Карлос Родригес нартай хамтран ажиллах хувилбаруудыг хэлэлцжээ. Уг төслийн хүрээнд тоглолтуудыг АНУ-д ESPN сувгаар шууд дамжуулах, Диснейн цэцэрлэгт хүрээлэнгүүдэд нээлт, хаалтын ажиллагааг зохион байгуулах зэрэг арилжааны өргөн хүрээтэй саналууд багтсан байв.
Гэвч 2026 оны эрэгтэйчүүдийн Дэлхийн аваргын өмнөхөн ФИФА уг төслийг хэрэгжүүлэхээс татгалзсан байна. ФИФА-гийн зүгээс хүүхдийн тэмцээнийг арилжаалахтай холбоотой ёс зүйн болон бусад асуудлууд энэ шийдвэрт нөлөөлсөн эсэх талаар албан ёсны тайлбар өгөөгүй юм. Өмнө нь 2025 оны 12 дугаар сард ФИФА-гийн зөвлөлөөс 15 хүртэлх насны хүүхдүүдийн тэмцээнийг богиносгосон хугацаатай, жижиг талбайд зохион байгуулах шийдвэр гаргаж байсан билээ.
Зургаадугаар сарын 24-нд ФИФА-гийн зөвлөлөөс уг тэмцээнийг Азербайжаны Баку хотод зохион байгуулахаар эцэслэн шийдвэрлэсэн байна. Тус улсын спортын дэд бүтэц нь олон мянган хүүхэд, албаны хүмүүсийг хүлээн авах боломжтой гэж үзжээ. Гадны хөрөнгө оруулалтгүйгээр зохион байгуулагдах энэхүү тэмцээний эхний жилд зөвхөн хөвгүүдийн баг өрсөлдөх бол 2027 оноос охидын тэмцээнийг тусдаа зохион байгуулахаар төлөвлөж байна.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
FIFA president Gianni Infantino held conversations over the past year with private investors to explore developing and commercializing an Under-15 ‘World Cup’ event inspired by baseball’s Little League World Series.
According to multiple sources familiar with the conversations who will remain anonymous to protect relationships, soccer’s global governing body invited proposals to commercialize a youth “festival” of football, which would have included all 211 nations registered as FIFA member associations.
The plans were shelved just before the World Cup and it is unclear whether the secret talks Infantino held with Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Eternal, the fund which sought to be the lead investor in acquiring a 21 percent stake in FIFA’s commercial and event operations, were a factor. Thrive Capital declined to comment when asked if they had been made aware of FIFA’s plans to commercialize an Under-15 tournament.
An extensive proposal for the Under-15 competition, which was planned to be for boys only in its first year, was drawn up by businessmen including Juan Carlos Rodríguez, the former Mexico Football Federation commissioner. He received backing from Eldridge Industries, a global holding company founded and chaired by Todd Boehly, chairman of Premier League team Chelsea and co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. They held conversations with ESPN, a long-time broadcaster of the Little League World Series, to host the event at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, located close to the Disney World resorts in Orlando, Florida.
FIFA, Eldridge, ESPN and Rodríguez declined to comment.
Under the proposals, ESPN would have broadcast the competition in the United States. The proposals included options for opening and closing ceremonies at Disney theme parks.
FIFA’s president also had an idea for the opening match of the Under-15 festival to be between the national teams of Israel and Palestine, but this was not part of the proposals set out by Rodriguez or Eldridge. It followed the president’s failed attempt on stage at the FIFA Congress in Vancouver in April to get representatives from the Israeli and Palestinian football federations to shake hands and pose for a photograph together.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino in Colombia on August 7 (Gabriel Aponte / Getty Images)
FIFA has been open about its plans to create a new global Under-15 tournament. It was first announced following a FIFA Council meeting in December 2025, after which FIFA issued a press release to say it would involve shorter matches and smaller pitches than senior football. FIFA also confirmed the first instalment of the competition would be for boys only, before a girls’ edition in 2027. After that, both the boys’ event and the girls’ event would be played separately at different times of the year.
“We have been very active in promoting youth competitions and development, and this is a natural next step, and a very joyous one,” Infantino said in a statement in December.
However, FIFA has never revealed publicly that it was in discussions to commercialize the venture. FIFA declined to comment when asked if FIFA’s leadership had informed the FIFA Council to explore outside investment for an Under-15 children’s tournament.
According to tax forms first reported by PENNLIVE.com, Little League International receives around $17 million annually from ESPN under its current deal to retain the global rights for its baseball and softball world series. This underlines the commercial potential of such a venture for soccer, which is much more popular globally than baseball, but tournaments featuring children are not usually widely broadcast or commercialized in the sport.
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A person familiar with the plans said that investors would have been prepared to initially take no rights fee from broadcasters for the Under-15 competition, instead prioritizing reach on widely-viewed networks, streaming platforms and TV channels across the world. This would allow for bigger sponsorship sales and an audience to be built over time.
Boehly’s Eldridge and Rodriguez saw the product as one that could be built for the long-term and which would reap rewards over decades as the competition became more established. There was hope that the product would become particularly popular in nations which do not ordinarily qualify for World Cups, creating strong local rights markets to monetise, while some within FIFA saw possibilities to uncover opportunities for teenagers to be scouted by clubs from more developed soccer nations. The tournament would have featured 32 groups of six or seven teams, so as to accommodate all 211 nations.
A formal proposal was provided to FIFA, which gave encouragement that it was receptive to the concept. However, just before the 2026 men’s World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, Eldridge was informed that FIFA did not intend to proceed with the concept.
Some people close to the project wondered if there were concerns among some personnel at FIFA about the optics of commercializing a children’s tournament. The conversations with an outside investment group to acquire a 20 per cent stake in FIFA’s commercial and event operations may also have proven to be in conflict.
Infantino only went public with plans to set up a new private entity — FIFA Forward Enterprises (FFE) — and that it was looking to sell a minority stake it to outside investors following the culmination of the World Cup, and those plans were quickly abandoned after a huge backlash.
Given the youth festival required the approval of FIFA’s 211 member nations, it was always optimistic for it be held in late October. As such, on June 24, around 12 days into this summer’s tournament, FIFA announced that the FIFA Bureau of the Council, a group of top directors, had ultimately decided the Under-15 event should take place in Azerbaijan, seemingly without external investment at this stage.
A FIFA statement said the decision to go to Baku followed a “thorough assessment by the FIFA administration and takes into account the world-class sporting and general infrastructure in the host country, which is capable of welcoming thousands of children and support staff in a centralised location.”
