October 14 – FIFA has bowed to pressure from UEFA and Concacaf presidents Aleksander Ceferin and Victor Montagliani, and has put forward a proposal for approval to the FIFA Council, who meet tomorrow (October 15), that would see each of its 211 member associations eligible to receive $25 million over the 2027-30 cycle.
This is more than double the $10 million currently budgeted for member associations via the FIFA Forward 4.0 programme for the cycle. FIFA is saying the additional $15 million would come from its reserves that are expected to hit $6 billion at the end of this year once the final reconciliation is completed for the 2026 World Cup.
The FIFA proposal is a significant victory for Ceferin and Montagliani who have argued that FIFA can comfortably afford to distribute more of its reserves without leaving the governing body vulnerable and without having to raise money from outside sources.
In July FIFA president Gianni Infantino unveiled a plan to raise $4.2 billion from private equity funding in exchange for all its commercial rights being placed in a joint venture company, FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE). The rationale behind the money raise was that this would enable FIFA to get more development finding to its member associations.
That FIFA is now proposing to use its reserves to increase FA development funding exposes the myth of that reasoning and supports the suspicion that FFE’s sole purpose was never to raise money for member associations.
Tagged as the ‘FIFA Surplus Solidarity Programme’, the additional $15 million FIFA is proposing breaks down into three tranches of $5 million. The first $5 million would be distributed in $1.25 million parcels annually for operational costs dedicated to women’s and youth football, including national teams and competitions. $5 million would be allocated for infrastructure projects (stadium development, technical centres, headquarters), and $5 million for special projects for long term development. This latter project funding would be available until 31 December 2036.
The Ceferin/Montagliani proposal was for a one-time $10 million payment to each member association that would leave FIFA’s reserves at $3.6 billion, but also said that if FIFA’s year end reserves topped $6 billion, then an “additional amount available for distribution should be released accordingly”.
FIFA’s proposal leaves cash reserves at a minimum $1.7 billion.
FIFA is also proposing an additional $33 million over the 2027-30 period for each of the six confederations ($99 million over the four-year cycle) and an additional $2.75 million for the 13 zonal/regional associations ($11 million over the four-year cycle).
Ceferin and Montagliani proposed a slightly higher $108 million for confederations over the cycle and $6 million for the regional associations.
FIFA has bowed to the overwhelming pressure to release more money to its membership, but it comes with a lot of strings attached and over what would likely stretch into an eight-year period rather than sitting within the next four-year cycle. And it likely still comes with what federations frequently claim is a restrictive approval and distribution process.
It is a move in a direction that Infantino will hope eases some personal pressure over the unanswered questions swirling around his abandoned FFE scheme and his role within it.
FIFA’s wider membership, having now seen that considerably more money can be released from within the fat of a very well-fed body, will be less inclined to have time or protocol restrictions imposed on what is theirs by right. They will want to see the FIFA grip on their throats loosened much further.
Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]
