Gianni Infantino told to give every FA in the world £7.5m as FIFA’s reserves set to skyrocket

UEFA and CONCACAF are pushing for Infantino to leave FIFA

According to Sky News, it is understood that a letter was sent on Friday to Infantino claiming FIFA's reserves are set to rise to $6bn.

This highlighted FIFA's financial strength, contrary to Infantino’s claims that private equity was needed to fund football development.

Infantino is now being pushed by UEFA and CONCACAF to leave FIFA over his attempt to sell off 20% of the World Cup to private investors in a $20bn venture.

Aleksander Ceferin, president of UEFA and his CONCACAF counterpart, Victor Montagliani, suggested to Infantino that FIFA already has the wealth to use $2.1bn of funds to provide extra cash for infrastructure and football development worldwide, as per Sky News.

Victor Montagliani and Aleksander Ceferin in 2017 during a football match, ahead of the 67th FIFA Congress. Credit: Getty Images

The letter to Infantino sent by the heads of UEFA and CONCACAF

In their letter to Infantino, both Ceferin and Montagliani, who are also FIFA vice presidents, claim that the governing body's cash reserves would still be at least $1.5bn after distributing extra cash to FAs.

To each football association, FIFA has been planning to make $8m available from 2027 to 2030 to help fund infrastructure, coaching, national teams, competitions, grassroots football and the women's game.

Their financial analysis “raises an important question as to whether the proposed transaction was necessary to deliver greater resources” to FIFA's member associations rather than using existing growing wealth, Ceferin and Montagliani wrote.

“FIFA already has the capacity to deliver substantially more to its Member Associations (MAs) from its own balance sheet - without any sale of interests in its competitions, and without asking anything of the MAs in return”, they wrote in a letter which Sky News obtained.

Following backlash that led to UEFA pursuing legal action, Infantino abandoned the World Cup sell-off plan, claiming it was undervalued partly for his benefit.

The head of FIFA was accused of pressuring FAs to rapidly approve the plans in less than two months or miss out on a financial windfall over the next 12 years, as he only announced the World Cup venture plans in late July.

Meanwhile, for Infantino who is seeking re-election in 2027, FIFA claimed there is a smear campaign and it has denied any wrongdoing.