FIFA admitted its mistake.

On August 5, local time, FIFA's official website released a statement saying that FIFA's leadership held a meeting in Rabat, Morocco, to discuss the controversy arising from the recent FIFA Forward program proposal. Regarding the previously withdrawn proposal, the statement acknowledged that there were mistakes in the process of advancing this proposal and emphasized that there was no intention to exclude the FIFA Council and member associations from the decision-making process, but this process should have been handled differently. The statement also admitted that there were missteps in handling the situation after the proposal details were leaked to the media. FIFA stated that it has apologized to the FIFA Council and the 211 member associations regarding the issue and will review the relevant procedures to further improve the decision-making mechanism and internal communication, preventing similar situations from occurring again. Previously, FIFA President Gianni Infantino planned to establish a subsidiary valued at $20 billion to operate the World Cup and sell minority stakes to private investors.