Fifa president Gianni Infantino has been urged to provide an additional minimum of $10 million (£7.5m) to all 211 member federations over the next three years from existing reserves.
The presidents of Uefa and Concacaf wrote to Infantino on Friday, noting their analysis indicated this sum represented a “conservative” figure of what the organisation could give each national body. They stated Fifa is set to end the year with reserves reaching $6 billion (£4.5bn).
This request follows friction over Infantino’s proposal to secure private investment for a business entity managing competitions, such as the men’s and women’s World Cups.
Infantino had offered significant funding boosts for member associations (MAs) if that project was swiftly accepted. However, Uefa’s president Aleksander Ceferin and Concacaf president Victor Montagliani, whose confederation covers North and Central America alongside the Caribbean, maintained that distributing such funds did not depend on obtaining private backing.
“Releasing part of these reserves would demonstrate that MAs should not have to choose between development and good governance; between investment and integrity; or between financial support and the ability to consider proposals on their merits,” they wrote in correspondence seen by the Press Association.
“Development is an institutional responsibility of Fifa – not a matter of individual discretion. We therefore propose that our confederations jointly complete this analysis and agree on the amount of Fifa’s reserves that should be released directly to the MAs, with recommendations on disbursements put forward for consideration through FIFA’s proper governance process at the next Fifa Council meeting.”
Ceferin and Montagliani pointed out that even after paying 10m dollars to each association, reserves would remain above $1.5 billion (£1.1bn) throughout the 2027-30 cycle.
“Once a clearer picture of Fifa’s financial position at year-end is available, the Fifa Council can determine if a larger distribution is possible, and whether an equivalent distribution should follow in 2031-34,” they wrote.
The confederation leaders stated this support should be supplementary to amounts Fifa is already committed to providing through the FIFA Forward scheme.
Infantino shelved the private investment plan on 1 August after Uefa, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation rejected the proposal.
Uefa maintains it lacks confidence in Infantino despite the scheme’s withdrawal and intends to identify an alternative candidate to oppose him in upcoming presidential elections.
On 27 August, Uefa requested an independent review into the formulation of the private funding plan, following a similar request made by Football Association chair and Fifa vice-president Debbie Hewitt on the Fifa Council.
Uefa has also initiated legal action in US courts to obtain documents concerning the proposal, which Fifa has been permitted to contest.
FIFA has been asked for comment.
