GENEVA (AP) — FIFA’s member federations should each get an extra $10 million from its swelling cash reserves after a successful World Cup, the soccer body’s vice presidents from Europe and North America said in a letter Friday to its president Gianni Infantino as they step up efforts to oust him for trying to sell stakes in the tournament to private investors.
The letter says FIFA should have cash reserves of $6 billion after the World Cup and can
afford such a “one-off release" — which would total $2.1 billion to the 211 federations — UEFA's president Aleksander Ceferin and CONCACAF’s leader Victor Montagliani tell Infantino in a letter seen by The Associated Press.
UEFA and CONCACAF want to remove Infantino — either before or at the FIFA presidential election next March — after leading a global backlash in July against his World Cup sell-off plan to investors led by Joshua Kushner.
The call for $10-million payments to the national federations — who will elect the next president — is a clear counter to Infantino's offer of $20 million for each to support his now-failed project.
The message in Friday’s letter appears to be reassuring FIFA members they will get increased funding even without Infantino in the office he has occupied since 2016. The letter says already promised FIFA funding — $20 million for each of the 211 through 2030 — “would continue in full as already committed.”
Ceferin and Montagliani tell Infantino they want a full and independent analysis of FIFA's finances ahead of an Oct. 15 meeting in Zurich, to help decide how much money can responsibly be given to member federations.
The UEFA and CONCACAF leaders shape as key players at the scheduled meeting next month of the Infantino-chaired FIFA Council — its first since his secretive private equity plan was revealed by press reports in late July.
“Lastly, please note we will be informing the other four confederation presidents to support this motion,” Ceferin and Montagliani write.
UEFA has asked courts in Manhattan and Florida to authorize discovery of evidence from Kushner’s investment firm and FIFA for a potential criminal complaint against Infantino in Switzerland for possible financial mismanagement.
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