UEFA and CONCACAF demand $10m from FIFA reserves for each of 211 member associations
UEFA and CONCACAF have urged FIFA to distribute at least $10 million to every one of its 211 member associations in a joint letter sent to FIFA on September 19, 2026. The appeal was made by UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and Concacaf president Victor Montagliani and follows the collapse of Gianni Infantino’s FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal.
Ceferin and Montagliani wrote that FIFA is expected to finish the 2023-26 cycle with reserves of around $6 billion and argued those funds should be used for member associations. “FIFA currently holds billions of dollars in accumulated reserves,” the letter read. “These resources belong to football and exist to serve the game and its 211 member associations.” They called for at least $10 million to be made available to every association during the 2027-30 cycle, targeted at infrastructure and football development.
The confederations calculated that a one-off distribution of $10 million to each member would cost FIFA around $2.11 billion and would be in addition to the organisation’s regular funding for associations. The demand followed strong opposition to the FIFA Forward Enterprise plan, which was scrapped four days after being unveiled.
The abandoned proposal would have created a new company to manage the commercial and ticketing rights of FIFA competitions, including the World Cup, with a 21 percent stake potentially sold to an investment company. Infantino had told FIFA members they could receive $40 million if they backed the proposal, with federations given a September 19 deadline to accept the plans in order to access an initial $20 million.
UEFA and Concacaf said their review of FIFA’s published financial statements and budgets raised questions about whether the new structure was necessary to increase funding. The two confederations described their assessment as “deliberately conservative” and called for an independent review of FIFA’s finances with access to the underlying figures and assumptions. “Development is an institutional responsibility of Fifa, not a matter of individual discretion,” they wrote.
The joint letter was also sent to the presidents of FIFA’s other confederations asking them to support the proposed distribution from reserves. The development came a day after Football Association chair Debbie Hewitt wrote to Infantino and FIFA secretary general Mattias Grafstrom demanding the release of documents linked to the FIFA Forward Enterprise plan; Hewitt, who is also a FIFA vice-president, also called for a written explanation over the cancelled suspension of United States forward Folarin Balogun during the World Cup.
Infantino has been asked to make the relevant documents available before the next FIFA Council meeting on October 15. He is set to stand for a fourth term as FIFA president in March, with potential challengers having until November 18 to put forward an alternative candidate.
