FIFA member payments: Infantino open to extra funding before council talks

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has indicated willingness to support additional member association funding without committing to the proposed $10m per member, according to The Guardian. His response leaves the amount undecided ahead of the FIFA council’s consideration of the presidents’ proposals on 15 October.

The newspaper reports that the funding demand concerns distributing more money from FIFA’s cash reserves, which it puts at $6bn. That reported reserve balance is separate from the proposed payment to each association and does not establish an authorised distribution.

What member associations could receive

According to The Guardian, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and Concacaf president Victor Montagliani requested an additional payout of at least $10m for each of FIFA’s 211 members during the 2027–2030 commercial cycle. The request covers all member associations and specifies a minimum additional amount for each across that period.

The distinction between the amount and the period matters: the presidents sought at least $10m over the commercial cycle, rather than that sum every year. The figure represents their request, with Infantino yet to commit to the proposed payment.

Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa subsequently endorsed the demand in a separate letter, the newspaper reports.

What happens at the council meeting

Infantino said the presidents’ proposals would be considered at the FIFA council’s next meeting on 15 October, according to The Guardian. The stated next step is consideration of those proposals; the report does not supply a council decision approving additional payments.

For member associations, the outstanding details include the final amount, whether the funding will be approved and the arrangements for payment. No settled payment schedule or final distribution conditions are established by the report.

What the withdrawn FFE scheme proposed

The Guardian also reports that the abandoned FIFA Forward Enterprise scheme would have provided an additional $20m per member association during the next four-year cycle. That figure belonged to the withdrawn scheme’s proposed terms and should not be treated as a payment offered under the current request.

Infantino defended the withdrawn commercial proposal as an attempt to enable FIFA to invest more in football, according to the newspaper. That is his explanation of its intended purpose; the report does not establish that the funding now being discussed would replace the scheme.

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