By Julien Pretot
COPENHAGEN, Sept 28 (Reuters) – FIFA President Gianni Infantino has ordered an assessment of proposals to distribute more money to national associations, following calls from UEFA and CONCACAF for a $2.1 billion payout from the governing body’s reserves, but stopped short of committing to an amount.
In a letter to the six continental confederation presidents seen by Reuters on Monday, Infantino said the assessment would go before the FIFA Council on October 15, with any additional funding subject to financial checks and formal approval.
“Until the assessment and necessary approvals are complete, no preliminary figure can be treated as an approved commitment to the Member Associations,” he wrote.
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin and CONCACAF President Victor Montagliani proposed this month that each of FIFA’s 211 member associations receive at least $10 million during the 2027-30 cycle, in addition to existing development funding. They also sought an independent review of FIFA’s reserves.
Their September 18 letter questioned whether FIFA’s abandoned private-investment proposal had been needed to increase funding, given reserves they projected at about $6 billion at the end of 2026. They argued their proposed distribution would leave reserves above $1.5 billion throughout the following cycle.
Infantino defended the rationale for the withdrawn commercial plan, saying it would have generated funding beyond what FIFA could distribute from existing resources.
“The recent commercial proposal, now withdrawn, was intended to enable FIFA to invest more in football – not to replace support that could responsibly be provided from existing resources,” he wrote.
“So, it would actually have been on top of it.”
The FIFA Forward Enterprise project was abandoned in July following opposition from confederations, including UEFA, CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation, over a lack of consultation. The dispute has fuelled demands for changes to FIFA’s governance.
Infantino said FIFA’s administration had already been examining how to provide further development and solidarity funding before receiving the confederations’ submissions.
He asked the confederation chiefs to send their financial models, assumptions and supporting information to the secretary general, with relevant FIFA committees involved in verifying the assumptions.
The Council should determine the amount and timing of additional payments, the reserves needed to protect FIFA’s obligations and financial independence, and the eligibility, reporting and audit requirements attached to any distribution, he said.
The assessment would also consider support for confederations facing demonstrable structural costs.
Where sufficient evidence was available, the Council should receive a recommendation on October 15. Otherwise, it should approve “the shortest reasonable timetable” for completing the work.
“I will not prejudge the amount. I will support the greatest level of additional funding that can responsibly be delivered through FIFA’s proper governance process, applied fairly and supported by transparent and auditable arrangements,” Infantino wrote.
He also reiterated his invitation for proposals to strengthen FIFA’s decision-making, while urging the confederation presidents to respect decisions reached through its institutional processes.
“Trust is not the absence of disagreement,” he wrote. “It is demonstrated when we engage directly, test proposals against the facts and respect decisions properly reached through FIFA’s democratic and institutional processes – even when the outcome differs from the one we preferred.”
(Reporting by Julien PretotEditing by Christian Radnedge)
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