Uefa and Concacaf Demand $10m for Each Fifa Member Association
Uefa and Concacaf have moved from grumbling in the corridors to a direct challenge in writing.
In a joint letter to Gianni Infantino, the two confederations have demanded that Fifa unlock at least $10m (£7.5m) from its vast cash reserves for each of its 211 member associations – a total release of $2.11bn (£1.57bn) over the 2027-30 cycle.
This is not a polite nudge. It is a pointed response to Infantino’s now-abandoned Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) project and a clear attempt to reshape the financial debate at the top of the world game.
Power play after a failed private equity push
Infantino’s FFE proposal would have created a new company to manage commercial and ticketing rights for all Fifa competitions, including the World Cup, with 21% of that vehicle sold to a private investment firm.
The plan lasted four days.
National associations lined up against it, the backlash spread, and the idea was scrapped almost as quickly as it appeared. But the political damage lingered, and Uefa and Concacaf have now used that moment to attack the core justification for the scheme.
The letter, seen by BBC Sport and signed by Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin and Concacaf president Victor Montagliani, argues that Fifa’s own numbers undermine the case for selling a slice of its future.
It states that Fifa is “on course to close 2023-26 with reserves of approximately $6bn (£4.5bn)” – a figure the confederations say is “considerably more than is required” to take the organisation through to the 2030 men’s World Cup.
If the money is already there, they ask, why flirt with private equity at all?
“These resources belong to football”
Ceferin and Montagliani’s demand is blunt: Fifa should “make at least $10m available to each of its 211 member associations over the 2027-30 cycle”, specifically earmarked for “investment in infrastructure and football development”.
This would be a “one-off release of reserves”, they say, and would sit on top of the regular Fifa funding already planned for that period.
The language of the letter is carefully calibrated but unmistakably sharp. Fifa’s reserves, it says, “belong to football and exist to serve the game and its 211 member associations”.
The message is clear: the cash pile is not a trophy to be admired on a balance sheet, but a tool that should be put to work.
“Prudence should not prevent a careful examination of whether a portion could responsibly be released to the extent those reserves exceed Fifa’s foreseeable needs,” the letter continues.
Ceferin and Montagliani also press a broader governance point. Releasing part of the reserves, they argue, would show that member associations “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”.
Then comes the line that cuts to the heart of their objection to Infantino’s approach: “Development is an institutional responsibility of Fifa – not a matter of individual discretion.”
Infantino’s offer – and the pushback
The timing is no coincidence. When the FFE plan surfaced in the days after the World Cup final, Infantino told member associations they stood to receive $40m (£30m) if they backed the proposal.
He set a deadline of 19 September for federations to sign up if they wanted access to an initial $20m (£15m). The implication was obvious: support the private equity deal, unlock the cash.
Uefa and Concacaf have now challenged that premise directly. Their letter says analysis of Fifa’s published financial statements and budgets “raised doubts that the FFE proposal was necessary to deliver greater resources”.
They stress that their analysis was “deliberately conservative” and suggest that, once the year-end financial position is confirmed, the Fifa Council should consider an even larger distribution from reserves.
To underpin that, they call for an “independent review” of Fifa’s finances, with “full access to the underlying figures and assumptions”. It is a demand for transparency as much as for money.
Building a coalition
This is not just a European and North American play. A second letter, also seen by BBC Sport, has gone out to the presidents of the remaining confederations in Asia, Africa, South America and Oceania, urging them to back the proposal.
If they do, Infantino will face a united front from across the global game, not just from his most vocal critics in Europe.
The pressure on the Fifa president is not only financial. Governance questions are piling up.
Hewitt raises the stakes
On top of the Uefa–Concacaf move, Football Association chair Debbie Hewitt has written separately to Infantino and Fifa secretary general Mattias Grafstrom.
Hewitt, a Fifa vice-president, has demanded that all documents relating to the FFE plan be released. She wants the Fifa Council to receive a written explanation of why the suspension of United States forward Folarin Balogun at the World Cup was cancelled, and on what basis.
Her message is direct: make all documents available before the next Fifa Council meeting on 15 October.
So the battle lines are drawn. On one side, a president who recently tried to bring private equity into Fifa’s core commercial engine and promised rich rewards for those who followed. On the other, confederations insisting the money is already there, that the books must be opened, and that development funding should never depend on political loyalty.
The reserves are swelling. The questions are multiplying. How Infantino chooses to answer them will shape not just his authority, but the way football’s billions are controlled in the years to come.
