Infantino orders FIFA review of member-association payouts but commits to no figure yet
In a letter seen by Reuters, FIFA president Gianni Infantino ordered an assessment of proposals to pay billions from reserves to the 211 member associations, with a recommendation going to the FIFA Council on 15 October — but said no amount has been committed.
Gianni Infantino has ordered FIFA to assess proposals to distribute billions of dollars from the governing body’s reserves to its 211 member associations, but stopped short of committing to any payout figure.
In a letter to the presidents of the six continental confederations seen by Reuters on Monday, Infantino said the assessment would go before the FIFA Council at its meeting on 15 October, with any additional funding subject to financial checks and formal Council approval, Reuters reported.
“Until the assessment and necessary approvals are complete, no preliminary figure can be treated as an approved commitment to the Member Associations,” he wrote.
Unlike last week’s letter, in which Infantino proposed an independent review of FIFA’s governance, this one is about money: on 18 September, UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin and CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani demanded at least $10 million for each member association over the 2027–30 cycle — roughly $2.1 billion in total — from reserves they projected at about $6 billion by the end of 2026, Reuters reported. Asian Football Confederation president Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa and Oceania president Lambert Maltock have since sent letters supporting the payout call, USA Today reported.
Infantino asked the confederation chiefs to send their financial models, assumptions and supporting information to FIFA secretary general Mattias Grafström, so the Council can determine the amount and timing of any payments, the reserves FIFA must retain, and the eligibility, reporting and audit requirements attached to any distribution, Reuters reported.
“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,” he wrote.
He also defended the abandoned FIFA Forward Enterprise plan to sell a stake in FIFA’s commercial rights to private investors: “The recent commercial proposal, now withdrawn, was intended to enable FIFA to invest more in football – not to replace support that could responsibly be provided from existing resources. So, it would actually have been on top of it.”
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