Home · Sports · Sep 18 archive
UEFA and Concacaf Call for $2.1 Billion FIFA Payout
Confirmed
In Short: UEFA and Concacaf have asked FIFA to distribute $2.1 billion from its reserves to its 211 member associations.
UEFA and Concacaf have called on FIFA to release at least $10 million to each of its 211 member associations from its accumulated cash reserves, intensifying the dispute over president Gianni Infantino’s controversial Fifa Forward Enterprise proposal.
In a letter addressed to Infantino and signed by UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and Concacaf president Victor Montagliani, the two confederations argued that FIFA has sufficient financial resources to make a significant one-off distribution to national associations.
According to the letter, FIFA is expected to close the 2023–26 financial cycle with reserves of around $6 billion, which UEFA and Concacaf believe is considerably more than the organization needs to operate through to the 2030 men’s World Cup.
Their letter called for an independent review of FIFA’s finances, with access to the underlying figures and assumptions used to determine the organization’s financial position.
The two presidents also argued that FIFA’s reserves ultimately belong to football and should be considered for distribution when they exceed the organization’s foreseeable financial requirements.
The dispute comes at a significant time for Infantino, who is seeking a fourth term as FIFA president at the election in March.
UEFA and Concacaf say the money should be directed towards infrastructure projects and football development.
The call comes after widespread opposition forced FIFA to abandon its Fifa Forward Enterprise plan just four days after it was unveiled.
The proposal involved the creation of a new company to manage commercial and ticketing rights for FIFA competitions, including the World Cup, with 21% of the company potentially being sold to an investment group.
Confederation chiefs call on Gianni Infantino to make $2.1bn payout to all FIFA’s 211 member associations.
The FIFA Forward Enterprise, or FFE, had been presented to the 211 member associations as a plan under which an interest in FIFA’s competitions would be sold to outside investors in order to generate significantly more money for football development.
The one-off release would be additional to the existing FIFA Forward Programme, which would continue in full.
What's confirmed
- UEFA and Concacaf have called on FIFA to release at least $10 million to each of its 211 member associations from its accumulated cash reserves, intensifying the dispute over president Gianni Infantino’s controversial Fifa Forward Enterprise proposal.
- In a letter addressed to Infantino and signed by UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and Concacaf president Victor Montagliani, the two confederations argued that FIFA has sufficient financial resources to make a significant one-off distribution to national associations.
- According to the letter, FIFA is expected to close the 2023–26 financial cycle with reserves of around $6 billion, which UEFA and Concacaf believe is considerably more than the organization needs to operate through to the 2030 men’s World Cup.
- Their letter called for an independent review of FIFA’s finances, with access to the underlying figures and assumptions used to determine the organization’s financial position.
- The two presidents also argued that FIFA’s reserves ultimately belong to football and should be considered for distribution when they exceed the organization’s foreseeable financial requirements.
- The dispute comes at a significant time for Infantino, who is seeking a fourth term as FIFA president at the election in March.
- UEFA and Concacaf say the money should be directed towards infrastructure projects and football development.
- The call comes after widespread opposition forced FIFA to abandon its Fifa Forward Enterprise plan just four days after it was unveiled.
- The proposal involved the creation of a new company to manage commercial and ticketing rights for FIFA competitions, including the World Cup, with 21% of the company potentially being sold to an investment group.
- Confederation chiefs call on Gianni Infantino to make $2.1bn payout to all FIFA’s 211 member associations.
- The FIFA Forward Enterprise, or FFE, had been presented to the 211 member associations as a plan under which an interest in FIFA’s competitions would be sold to outside investors in order to generate significantly more money for football development.
- The one-off release would be additional to the existing FIFA Forward Programme, which would continue in full.
What's still developing
- The proposed distribution would cost FIFA approximately $2.11 billion and would be separate from the organisation’s regular funding programmes.
- Ceferin and Montagliani said their analysis of FIFA’s published financial statements and budgets raised questions about whether such a transaction had been necessary.
- Ceferin and Montagliani said that even after such a distribution, FIFA’s reserves would not fall below about $1.5bn at any point during the next cycle, about 50 percent above what they said was the minimum reserve level FIFA itself had budgeted for 2023-26.
- Once a clearer picture of FIFA’s year-end financial position is available, the letter said, the FIFA Council could determine whether a larger distribution was possible and whether an equivalent payout should follow in the 2031-34 cycle.
- “Development is an institutional responsibility of FIFA – not a matter of individual discretion,” it said.
- The UEFA and CONCACAF letter said they would issue recommendations for disbursements at the next FIFA Council meeting.
- "FIFA already has the capacity to deliver substantially more to its MAs from its own balance sheet – without any sale of interests in its competitions, and without asking anything of the MAs in return," the letter read.