September 29 – Gianni Infantino has tasked FIFA with figuring out how much more money it can hand out directly to its 211 national associations, less than three months after his attempt to bring private investors to FIFA’s commercial operation collapsed spectacularly.
Infantino’s position, outlined in a letter sent to FIFA’s six confederations on Monday, is in response to a demand from UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and Concacaf chief Victor Montagliani, who want FIFA to release at least $10 million to each member association during the 2027-30 cycle.
This would mean a payment of $2.1 billion on top of payments from the existing FIFA Forward program, which provides financial support for development. Ceferin and Montagliani’s analysis projects FIFA’s reserves to be around $6 billion by the end of 2026 and argues that the distribution could be made without those reserves falling below $1.5 billion. They have also called for the numbers to be independently reviewed.
Infantino has now asked the FIFA administration to approve the proposal before the Governing Council meeting on 15 October.
He wrote in the letter: “I will not prejudge the amount. I will give the highest level of additional funding that can be responsibly delivered through FIFA’s proper governance process, applied fairly and supported by transparent and auditable agreements.”
The moment is difficult to separate from the debris left behind by the FIFA Forward Enterprise.
FFE would have moved FIFA’s business and events operations, including World Cup-related rights, to a new subsidiary and sold up to a 20% stake to outside investors. The original proposal valued his estate at around $20 billion and hoped to raise up to $4.2 billion, with Infantino pitching the additional capital as a way to accelerate the development of soccer worldwide.
UEFA, Concacaf and AFC opposed the project over the way it had been developed and the lack of consultation, forcing FIFA to abandon it in July. Infantino later proposed an independent review of FIFA’s decision-making after the dispute became a wider challenge to his leadership.
Ceferin and Montagliani’s argument now comes to an awkward question: If FIFA already has billions in reserve, why was private capital needed to put more money into the hands of its members?
Infantino insists the two are different.
“The recent commercial proposal, now withdrawn, was intended to allow FIFA to invest more in football, not to replace support that could be responsibly provided with existing resources,” he wrote.
“So I would actually have been on it.”
The FFE argument is not going away quietly either. UEFA has gone to a US federal court seeking documents and witnesses for a planned criminal complaint in Switzerland related to the abandoned project. FIFA responded by accusing UEFA of a “disinformation campaign” and categorically denying Infantino’s allegations of wrongdoing.
Infantino spent July arguing that foreign investment was the way to put much more money into world football. Now its own Council will be asked whether FIFA can write a much bigger cheque.
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at (email protected)
