UEFA, CONCACAF challenge FIFA on reserves and demand $10m payout to members

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani have written to FIFA president Gianni Infantino asking for an independent review of FIFA’s financial reserves and proposing a $2.1 billion one-off distribution to all 211 member associations. The two vice-presidents said their review of FIFA’s published accounts and budgets prompted questions about whether the scrapped FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) initiative was necessary to boost funding for member associations. Under the proposal, each national association would receive at least $10 million during the 2027–30 cycle, in addition to the existing FIFA Forward Programme. Ceferin and Montagliani said that even with this distribution, FIFA’s reserves would not fall below about $1.5 billion during the next cycle — roughly 50% higher than the minimum reserve level FIFA had budgeted for 2023–26. The letter acknowledged its own preliminary nature, noting it combined published actuals for 2022–25 with estimates for 2026 and assumptions for 2027–30. For that reason the two confederation chiefs called for an independent review with full access to underlying figures and assumptions before any recommendations move through FIFA’s governance processes. Ceferin and Montagliani proposed that the confederations jointly complete the detailed analysis, set an agreed amount of reserves that could be released, and submit recommendations to the next FIFA Council meeting. They also said they would seek support from the presidents of the other four continental confederations. FIFA did not immediately comment on the letter, which Reuters reported seeing.