Pakistan, Sept. 2 -- Venture capitalist Josh Kushner said his company Thrive would not have become involved in FIFA President Gianni Infantino's proposal to sell part of the commercial rights of the World Cup to private investors if they had known how it would play out.

Kushner, the brother of Jared Kushner, son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump, defended the principle of Infantino's ill-fated FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal but said Thrive had not fully understood the politics of soccer.

Infantino withdrew the proposal, which valued the commercial rights of the World Cup and other FIFA tournaments at $20 billion, in late July in the face of a fierce backlash from European governing body UEFA and other stakeholders in the gam...