Infantino orders FIFA funding review after UEFA, CONCACAF seek $2.1 billion payout

COPENHAGEN, Sept 28 : FIFA President Gianni Infantino has ordered an assessment of proposals to distribute more money to national associations, following calls from UEFA and CONCACAF for a $2.1 billion payout from the governing body's reserves, but stopped short of committing to an amount.

In a letter to the six continental confederation presidents seen by Reuters on Monday, Infantino said the assessment would go before the FIFA Council on October 15, with any additional funding subject to financial checks and formal approval.

"Until the assessment and necessary approvals are complete, no preliminary figure can be treated as an approved commitment to the Member Associations," he wrote.

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin and CONCACAF President Victor Montagliani proposed this month that each of FIFA's 211 member associations receive at least $10 million during the 2027-30 cycle, in addition to existing development funding. They also sought an independent review of FIFA's reserves.

Their September 18 letter questioned whether FIFA's abandoned private-investment proposal had been needed to increase funding, given reserves they projected at about $6 billion at the end of 2026. They argued their proposed distribution would leave reserves above $1.5 billion throughout the following cycle.

Infantino defended the rationale for the withdrawn commercial plan, saying it would have generated funding beyond what FIFA could distribute from existing resources.

"The recent commercial proposal, now withdrawn, was intended to enable FIFA to invest more in football – not to replace support that could responsibly be provided from existing resources," he wrote.

"So, it would actually have been on top of it."

The FIFA Forward Enterprise project was