Uefa and Concacaf have gone on the offensive, formally demanding that Fifa unlock billions from its vast cash reserves and hand at least $10m (£7.5m) to every one of its 211 member associations.
The joint letter, seen by BBC Sport and signed by Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin and Concacaf chief Victor Montagliani, lands directly on the desk of Fifa president Gianni Infantino – and squarely in the aftermath of his abandoned private equity project, Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE).
Power play after failed private equity push
Infantino’s FFE plan would have created a new company to manage commercial and ticketing rights for all Fifa competitions, including World Cups, with 21% of that entity sold to an outside investment firm. In return, he promised a windfall: $40m (£30m) to each federation that backed the deal, with an initial $20m (£15m) available to those signing up by a 19 September deadline.
It lasted four days.
Widespread opposition from national associations forced the proposal to be scrapped, and with it went Infantino’s attempt to tie long-term governance of Fifa’s commercial rights to an external investor. The backlash has now hardened into something more organised – and more public.
Ceferin and Montagliani’s letter flips the logic of FFE on its head. If Fifa is as cash-rich as its accounts suggest, they argue, why should the sport’s global members be asked to trade away future control just to access money that already belongs to them?
“These resources belong to football”
The confederation leaders point to Fifa’s own figures. According to the letter, the governing body is “on course to close 2023-26 with reserves of approximately $6bn (£4.5bn)”, a sum they say is “considerably more than is required” to see Fifa through to the 2030 men’s World Cup.
Their demand is blunt: Fifa should “make at least $10m available to each of its 211 member associations over the 2027-30 cycle”, ringfenced for “investment in infrastructure and football development”.
That would mean a one-off release of $2.11bn (£1.57bn) from Fifa’s reserves, on top of the regular funding already scheduled for that period. No private equity, no new corporate structure – just money flowing directly from Zurich to the national associations.
“Fifa currently holds billions of dollars in accumulated reserves,” the letter reads. “These resources belong to football and exist to serve the game and its 211 member associations.”
The message is clear: prudence is one thing, hoarding is another.
Call for an independent financial review
Ceferin and Montagliani say their conclusions are based on a detailed analysis of Fifa’s published financial statements and budgets. That review, they insist, raises serious questions over whether the FFE proposal was ever “necessary to deliver greater resources”.
They describe their own calculations as “deliberately conservative” and urge the Fifa Council to consider an even larger distribution from reserves once the year-end financial position is confirmed.
Crucially, they want outside scrutiny. The letter calls for an “independent review” of Fifa’s finances, with “full access to the underlying figures and assumptions”. It is a direct challenge to Infantino’s stewardship and a push to strip away the opacity that has long surrounded Fifa’s financial decision-making.
The principle they set out is sharp: “Releasing part of these reserves would demonstrate that member associations should not have to choose between development and good governance; between investment and integrity; or between financial support and the ability to consider proposals on their merits.
“Development is an institutional responsibility of Fifa – not a matter of individual discretion.”
In other words, development money should not depend on whether federations fall in line behind the president’s pet projects.
Pressure builds across the confederations
The Uefa–Concacaf move is not being kept within their own borders. A second letter, also seen by BBC Sport, has gone out to the presidents of the remaining confederations – Asia, Africa, South America and Oceania – asking them to back the motion.
If they do, Infantino faces coordinated pressure from across the global game, not just from Europe and North and Central America. The battle lines are no longer regional; they are institutional.
And the scrutiny is not limited to money.
Hewitt pushes on FFE documents and Balogun case
On the eve of the Uefa–Concacaf intervention, Football Association chair Debbie Hewitt, a Fifa vice-president, wrote separately to Infantino and Fifa secretary general Mattias Grafstrom. Her demand: full disclosure of all documents relating to the FFE plan.
Hewitt also pressed for a written explanation to the Fifa Council over the cancelled suspension of United States forward Folarin Balogun at the World Cup – another decision that has raised eyebrows inside the organisation.
She has told Infantino to make all relevant documents available before the next Fifa Council meeting on 15 October. That deadline now looms over Zurich, with political pressure and financial questions converging on the same date.
Billions in reserves, a scrapped investment scheme, and confederations closing ranks: the next move belongs to Fifa’s president.
