FIFA President Gianni Infantino Signals Willingness to Increase Funding from $6 Billion Reserve

FIFA President Gianni Infantino appears set to accede to requests from UEFA and CONCACAF to allocate additional funds from FIFA’s $6 billion cash reserve to its member associations.

In a Monday letter addressed to the six confederation presidents—and copied to FIFA Council members—Infantino expressed his readiness to “back the maximum feasible increase in funding,” while stopping short of endorsing the specific $10 million‑per‑member figure that has been tabled.

His comments follow a joint missive earlier this month from UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin and CONCACAF President Victor Montagliani, urging an extra payout of no less than $10 million for each of FIFA’s 211 member associations across the 2027‑2030 commercial cycle—a proposal later echoed by Asian Football Confederation President Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa in a separate letter.

Infantino noted that the confederations’ proposals will be reviewed at the FIFA Council’s forthcoming meeting on 15 October, once Secretary General Mattias Grafström has compiled the inputs. He also referenced his shelved FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) initiative, which would have granted each association an extra $20 million over the next four‑year period, with a further $20 million available for those who enrolled before a 53‑day cutoff that lapsed last week.

He wrote, “I will not pre‑judge the figure; I will back the highest level of additional funding that can be responsibly dispensed via FIFA’s proper governance framework, applied equitably and underpinned by transparent, auditable arrangements. The ambition is welcome, but the financial evidence, governance structures, and implementation plans must now substantiate it.”

He added, “A single number can kick off the conversation, but it cannot settle a worldwide policy. Consequently, I have asked the Secretary General to merge all inputs into one integrated assessment for the FIFA Council’s review on 15 October 2026.”

Infantino also used the correspondence to defend his role in the FFE programme, arguing that it was designed to expand FIFA’s investment in football. He stated, “The withdrawn commercial proposal aimed to boost FIFA’s investment in the sport, not to supplant support that could responsibly be drawn from existing resources.”

He concluded, “I welcome the constructive intent evident in each of your letters. While we may disagree on the optimal path forward, I am confident that we all share the same goal: what is best for FIFA, its member associations, and the sport itself.”

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