'Flawed' funding system behind silence of smaller nations in FIFA's civil war, says ex-PNG player

SYDNEY, Aug 11 : Former Papua New Guinea international Alex Davani says some of the smaller football federations have kept quiet during FIFA's civil war because they fear losing the funding that is vital to their operations. 

Davani, a former deputy general secretary of Football Australia, believes global soccer's development funding system is flawed and hopes the discussions prompted by Gianni Infantino's abandoned FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal might create the environment for reform.

The 11-member Oceania federation were scheduled to meet on Wednesday to discuss the row that has split world football asunder and Davani thinks they are in a tough spot. 

"I don't think the sort of institutional silence or the quiet coming out of the region is complicity or apathy or anything like that," the lawyer and sports administrator told Reuters in an interview from Brisbane. 

"I actually think it's almost a predictable response in an environment where the FIFA ... development funding is often at times the entire operational budget for a member association from Oceania. So in that context, I think they've been placed in a tricky position.

"On the one hand, you have some of the big confederations coming out being very vocal about the proposal. And on the other hand, you have a situation where, not right or wrong, and maybe not intentionally, I think it's just a situation where speaking or forming a view may perhaps risk that funding.

"You don't want to put that at risk because it's your livelihood." 

The flaw in the system, Davani believes, is that FIFA's funding is discretionary, not an entitlement.

"Whilst the FIFA statutes quite frequently talk about development funding and development programs, nowhere in there is it enshrined the