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FIFA President Gianni Infantino apologized for errors made in the management and communication of the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) project during the first Council meeting after the World Cup, after which the sectors of Europe most critical of his management maintained their stance.
Infantino assured the Council gathered in Zurich, Switzerland, that the idea to sell a stake in FIFA competitions to outside investors has been permanently withdrawn and will not be presented in any way, and he issued a call for unity.
"Football is for everyone and everywhere," he stated, noting that the goal of the project, subject to the approval of the FIFA Council and its member associations, was always to increase investment in football and channel it more effectively.
According to a FIFA statement, outside lawyers informed the Council about the legal background of the FFE project, the details of which remain confidential due to ongoing legal proceedings in the United States.
The administration presented a proposal called the FIFA Surplus Solidarity Program, given the exceptional and unprecedented commercial returns of the World Cup, which would use a portion of the reserves to more than double the level of funding planned for 2027-2030, estimated at 6.35 billion dollars.
Based on an unaudited surplus forecast of between 5.2 and 5.6 billion dollars for 2023-2026, the initiative proposes maintaining fixed reserve funds of 1.7 billion dollars to deal with contingencies. Each federation would have an allocation of 25 million dollars, and the confederations will significantly increase their allocations assigned under the Forward 4.0 program.
This plan, which will be finalized by the relevant committees and the FIFA Council at its next meeting in December in Doha, will be subject to approval by the Congress on March 18, 2027, when presidential elections will be held.
"FIFA's money, including its reserves, belongs to the 211 member associations, and the proposal to increase investment in all member associations, confederations, and other stakeholders to 6.35 billion dollars aims to reinforce our firm commitment to continue supporting the development of football and its access globally thanks to the extraordinary financial result of the World Cup," declared Infantino.
The president highlighted that since he assumed the presidency in 2016, it has gone from 1 million dollars to 25 million for each association and thanked those who have made suggestions regarding the distribution of funds. "We must look to the future with a spirit of unity and in the best interest of football," he said.
After the meeting, UEFA federations highly critical of Infantino's management, such as England and Germany, maintained their opposing stance and rejected his continued presidency.
The chair of the English Football Association and FIFA Vice President, Debbie Hewitt, noted that they did not receive answers to the questions they asked, such as having access to FFE project documents. "He has to answer those questions and, if he doesn't do it now, he is not fit to be president of FIFA," she stated, according to English media.
"Trust in him has been lost. Now we need new people to come forward with new ideas and figure out how to put this organization on solid ground," noted in turn the president of the German Football Association, Bernd Neuendorf.
Africa's support for Infantino was represented by the president of the Mauritanian Football Federation, Ahmed Yahya, who defended that "Gianni Infantino is moving football forward all over the world." "I come from the African continent and I know what I am talking about. For us, equality is what defines FIFA today: that all countries are equal. When we go to the FIFA Congress, everyone has the same vote, in the same way. I am sure that Gianni Infantino is the right president. The majority want him to continue."
The Council agreed to create a working group that will include all confederations to examine in detail FIFA's governance framework and tasked the Social Responsibility Committee with evaluating the FIFA Peace Prize, which was awarded for the first time a year ago to the President of the United States, Donald Trump; a decision will be taken at the December meeting.
It also decided that the Legal Committee should review disciplinary procedures and present a report by that date, following the decision of the independent Disciplinary Committee during the World Cup to suspend for a one-year probationary period the one-match ban on American Folarin Balogun for his expulsion against Bosnia, adopted after a call from Trump to Infantino.
[Publicidad]