Kuala Lumpur, July 31 -- The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on Friday expressed solidarity with UEFA and CONCACAF in opposing FIFA's plans to sell a stake in the World Cup to private investors.

FIFA, on Tuesday, had announced that it was seeking to launch FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) to bring together the sale of FIFA's commercial rights, including broadcasting, sponsorship, ticketing and licensing, with the operational delivery of its tournaments. Under this proposal, FIFA would raise to 4.2 billion USD (3.1 billion pounds) via external investors through the sale of minority, non-controlling stakes in FFE, which FIFA says will be valued at around 20 billion USD (15 billion pounds).

However, this move generated a lot of concern and...