In an unprecedented escalation that lays bare the scale of the rift within the corridors of FIFA, the presidents of the world's two largest confederations have opened fire on Gianni Infantino. They want FIFA's accounts disclosed and its frozen billions handed to poorer associations.
Slovenia's Aleksander Ceferin, president of European governing body UEFA, and Canada's Victor Montagliani, who leads the North, Central American and Caribbean confederation CONCACAF, sent a strongly worded letter to Infantino. Published by "Reuters" this Friday, it calls for an independent financial review of FIFA's reserves and proposes distributing a huge sum of 2.1 billion dollars among the 211 member associations.
The 10 million letter
Signed by the two FIFA vice-presidents, the letter proposes handing no less than 10 million dollars to each national association during the 2027-2030 cycle. That money would go towards infrastructure and developing the game, entirely on top of the core funding committed under the "FIFA Forward" programme.
The move landed as a direct response to the controversial "FIFA Forward Enterprise" project. That plan aimed to sell a stake in FIFA's competitions to external investors to fund development, only to be scrapped and abandoned after a wave of overwhelming rejection within the general assembly.
Ceferin and Montagliani said in their letter: "Our analysis now raises an important question as to whether the proposed deal is necessary in the first place to provide greater resources for the member associations."
6 billion in the coffers
Their analysis, based on FIFA's published financial statements and budgets, revealed that the international body is on course to end the 2023-2026 cycle with record reserves of around 6 billion dollars, the largest in its history. That, they argue, confirms FIFA already has the means to fund the associations from its own budget without selling any assets.
Even after disbursing 2.1 billion dollars, the two men stressed, FIFA's reserves would not drop below 1.5 billion dollars at any point during the next cycle. That figure sits 50% higher than the minimum reserve level FIFA itself set in the 2023-2026 budget.
Independent review and the governance battle
The UEFA and CONCACAF presidents acknowledged that their analysis is preliminary, since it combines actual results from 2022 to 2025 with 2026 estimates and 2027-2030 assumptions. They therefore called for a full independent review with access to all figures and assumptions before recommendations are submitted through governance mechanisms.
Both men proposed that the confederations complete this analysis together and agree on the size of the reserves that should be released, with the recommendations presented at the next FIFA Council meeting. They insisted they would seek the support of the presidents of the other four confederations.
One stinging phrase closed the letter and captured the essence of the dispute: "Development is an institutional responsibility of FIFA, and not a matter of individual discretion", a clear reference to the idea that associations should not be forced to choose between obtaining development funding and their right to assess FIFA's proposals independently.
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This escalation comes with Infantino still intending to run for a new term in the March 2027 elections, while his opponents struggle to find a challenger capable of standing against him. FIFA issued no immediate comment on the letter.