The president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, has opened the process of evaluating a potential increase in funding for the organization’s 211 member associations, after receiving a request backed by UEFA, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, AFC, CAF and OFC. The proposal, initially promoted by UEFA and CONCACAF, calls for around $2.1 billion to be distributed during the 2027-2030 cycle, with a minimum of $10 million for each association. Infantino responded that he is prepared to support the highest level of additional funding that can be granted responsibly, although he stressed that no figure can yet be considered an approved commitment. The matter will be examined by the FIFA Council on October 15, 2026, following an assessment that will consider the organization’s financial position and the relevant governance mechanisms.
The debate over the money comes after several months of tension between FIFA and some of its main confederations. The main point of conflict was the proposal to create FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), a subsidiary that sought to consolidate FIFA’s commercial and competition operations and raise up to $4.2 billion through private investors. The project would have increased FIFA Forward resources for member associations, but it faced strong opposition from UEFA, CONCACAF and AFC, among other organizations, over concerns surrounding the consultation process and governance. FIFA ultimately withdrew the initiative just days after announcing it, while UEFA said it was considering possible legal action related to the project.
A $2.1 billion proposal for the 211 federations
The request for increased funding was formally submitted by Aleksander Čeferin, president of UEFA, and Victor Montagliani, president of CONCACAF, who proposed that each of the 211 associations receive at least $10 million in additional funding during the 2027-2030 period. The calculation brings the total allocation to around $2.1 billion and is presented as an extraordinary release of resources from FIFA’s reserves, which the confederations estimate at approximately $6 billion following the 2026 World Cup. The proposal was subsequently backed by other confederations and became part of the debate now being considered by FIFA.
Infantino’s response does not set the requested amount, but it does establish a procedure to examine the proposal. The FIFA president asked the secretary general, Mattias Grafström, to compile the financial models, assumptions and supporting information used by the confederations to formulate their calculations. The assessment will have to determine how much additional money could be provided, when potential payments could be made and what level of reserves FIFA should maintain to protect its obligations and financial independence. The eligibility, implementation, reporting and auditing conditions associated with any new allocation will also have to be defined.
The FIFA Forward Enterprise dispute and the new scenario
The current debate has as its immediate background the failed FIFA Forward Enterprise project. FIFA had announced in July a structure designed to bring its commercial and competition operations together under a new subsidiary, with an initial valuation of $20 billion and the possibility of raising up to $4.2 billion through the sale of minority stakes to investors. According to FIFA itself, the additional resources would have allowed a significant increase in funding for the federations: the Forward program would have risen from $8 million per association in the 2023-2026 cycle to $20 million in 2027-2030, in addition to an extraordinary allocation of $20 million per federation through the Fast-Forward program.
However, the initiative triggered a negative reaction from several confederations. UEFA said it was considering legal action and asked FIFA to preserve all documentation related to the project, while various associations questioned the way the initiative had been presented. Three days after its official announcement, Infantino announced that FIFA was abandoning the project, arguing that the divisions it had generated prevented it from continuing to serve its original purpose. Now, the debate has returned to the money that FIFA can distribute directly from its existing resources: the confederations maintain that the organization has room to increase payments without relying on private capital, while Infantino has argued that the withdrawn commercial proposal was intended to generate additional resources and was not meant to replace funding that could responsibly be provided from existing reserves.
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