LONDON (AP) — FIFA’s cash reserves soared to a record $2.74 billion and revenue climbed to $6.4 billion in the four-year period covering the 2018 World Cup, The Associated Press has learned.
The robust financial results suggest FIFA has weathered the deepest crisis in its history, which erupted in 2015 when a United States-led criminal investigation led to the arrests and later convictions of high-ranking officials on corruption charges. FIFA President Sepp Blatter also was deposed as FIFA president in a financial misconduct case that left the governing body’s reputation in tatters and caused a backlash from sponsors.
After being elected as Blatter’s successor in 2016, Gianni Infantino said that “FIFA was clinically dead as an organization.” Although Infantino’s leadership has come under criticism from within European governing body UEFA, Infantino will be able to show the budget is in a healthy state, and he is due to be re-elected unopposed in June for a four-year term.
The 2015-18 finances obtained by the AP exceed the forecasts presented to the FIFA Congress last June. While FIFA projected cash reserves to swell to $1.653 billion in the 2018 World Cup cycle, they had grown to $2.74 billion at the end of 2018, according to people with knowledge of the finances. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the financial results remain confidential.
In 2015, FIFA targeted raising $5 billion by the end of 2018, a projection later raised to $6.1 billion. Those expectations were eclipsed when the four-year cycle ended with revenues of $6.4 billion, according to the people with knowledge of the financial report, which shows profit of around $1 billion.
The record revenue was achieved despite FIFA not filling its full slate of sponsors for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Several sponsors did not renew after the 2014 tournament in Brazil.
Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, an opponent of Infantino in the 2016 vote, had warned Infantino’s plan to vastly increase payouts to member associations would “bankrupt” FIFA.
While $328 million was redistributed to members from 2011-15 for football development projects, investment soared to $1.161 billion over the last four years.
As part of the FIFA Forward development program, 941 projects were funded in 179 of the 211 member associations between May 2016 and December 2018 at a cost of $270.3 million. Approximately 30 development projects were approved annually during Blatter’s reign.
The spike in development funding has been tied to what FIFA proclaims is a far more rigorous system of financial controls designed to guard against further corruption scandals. FIFA rejected 201 of the 1,978 funding applications received in the four-year cycle.
FIFA is also trying to secure backing to expand the Club World Cup and develop a Global Nations League, a mini-World Cup for national teams, to further boost revenue.
In its financial report, FIFA said the success of the 2018 World Cup has provided “strong financial resources” to enable it to raise Forward funds by $667 million to $1.746 billion in the 2019-22 cycle.
Each member association can apply for up to $6 million over the 2019-22 cycle, while each of the six confederations receives $48 million. In addition, $62 million is available for zonal or regional associations if they organize at least five youth and women’s competitions per year.
FIFA has tied investment in part to the development of women’s football more broadly, rather than providing parity on World Cup prize money between the men’s and women’s tournaments.
France earned $38 million from FIFA for winning the men’s World Cup last July. The women’s champion this July will earn $4 million, double the amount collected by the U.S. Soccer Federation in 2015. The overall Women’s World Cup prize money has doubled to $30 million, while the fund for the World Cup in Russia rose 12 percent to $400 million. World Cup prize money will be $440 million for the 2022 tournament in Qatar.
“We are making progress,” Infantino said last year. “We have to invest in women’s football to make it even self-sustaining to some extent.”
Infantino is costing FIFA less than his predecessor.
Infantino last year earned a salary of $1.9 million and bonus of $550,000, according to one of the people with knowledge of the finances. Infantino earned $1.61 million in 2017 without a bonus.
Blatter’s basic salary of $3 million in 2015 was topped up by an $11 million contractual bonus for the 2010 World Cup and $12 million for the 2014 edition. His contract included a $12 million performance bonus he would have earned had he completed a 2015-19 presidential term.
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