Zurich, July 30 -- FIFA president Gianni Infantino has defended plans to sell a minority stake in the FIFA World Cup and raise funds via external investors, saying that the process to bring in the plan is "democratic and not an obligation" for the member associations affiliated with the world's football governing body.

FIFA on Tuesday announced that it was seeking to launch FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) in order to bring together the sale of FIFA's commercial rights, right from broadcasting, sponsorship, ticketing and licensing - with the operational delivery of its tournaments, as per Sky Sports.

Under this proposal, FIFA would raise upto 4.2 billion USD (3.1 billion pounds) via external investors, through the sale of minority, non-con...