October 11 – In a letter to FIFA president Gianni Infantino and copied to FIFA Council members ahead of the FIFA Council meeting on Thursday (October 15), UEFA and Concacaf confederation presidents Alexander Ceferin and Victor Montagliani say a one-off distribution of $10 million to each national federation from FIFA’s $6 billion reserves “is conservative and more than manageable”.
This is the second time they have written to Infantino to urge him to support the release of funds to his member associations. The first was on September 19. Infantino did not respond directly to that letter, but did write to confederation presidents on September 28 saying the FIFA executive was looking at how much could be released.
“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,” Infantino said.
Ceferin and Montagliani’s claim that $10 million can be released comes after a “more detailed analysis of FIFA’s finances” and would still leave FIFA with $2.6 billion in reserves. The 2026 World Cup generated over $15 billion in revenue.
“We are proposing a prudent reserve of approximately $2.3 billion, representing one year of projected recurring spending,” the letter says.
“This conservative approach would provide Fifa with substantial financial protection while avoiding the distortion created by treating exceptional tournament expenses as recurring operating expenses. Furthermore, with Fifa’s strong financial position, it could easily establish cheap lines of credit, which could be accessed should there ever be an unprecedented liquidity crisis.”
In their letter, Ceferin and Montagliani re-raised questions surrounding Infantino’s abandoned plan to sell all of FIFA’s commercial rights to a new private equity business, FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE).
Infantino had promised member associations a one-time payment of $18 million for everyone who had signed up to the plan, but gave them a short window to accept. The rights were not Infantino’s to sell but belonged to FIFA’s member associations. In fact, he was trying to bribe them with his own money, and would have been able to get away with it without the global outrage over the scheme and the lack of transparency behind it.
“As we are sure you are aware, there remain many issues on the FFE proposal that need to be addressed at the council meeting,” the letter says, adding that the presentation of a detailed financial analysis to the FIFA Council on the proposals “must never be overlooked because we will never be in the same position as we are today after the FFE process.”
In addition to proposing the distribution of $10 million to national federations, Ceferin and Montagliani say the process for awarding them the grant money should be a “simpler and more accessible process.”
In essence, the money is not a gift but a right of the member association, but federations around the world complain that FIFA often withholds money for no apparent reason, only to suddenly make it available when situations like the current political crisis arise, and with Infantino’s FIFA they arise regularly.
FIFA members currently receive a grant of $1.25 million a year ($650,000 for general administration and up to $600,000 conditional on specific activities), while during the four-year cycle between men’s World Cups, they can apply for up to an additional £3 million for infrastructure projects – pitches, headquarters or training centres. In total, it is 8 million dollars for the 4-year cycle.
An additional $1 million per cycle can be claimed for travel and accommodation by associations with annual revenues of less than $4 million.
While $8M over four years is a substantial amount (but proportionally nowhere near the $6M+ that Infantino is paid annually), it returns far less when projects are delayed and prevented from being completed and their release is used to manipulate FAs.
The letter also proposes that each of the six confederations receive an additional $36 million and that each regional association of the confederations receive an additional $3 million.
If the financial and financial governance proposals are agreed, the master-servant relationship that FIFA has with many of its member associations will be broken and major steps will have been taken to stop grant money being used to manipulate member associations.
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