Uefa and Concacaf Demand Fifa Unlock Billions for Member Associations

Uefa and Concacaf have moved their fight with Fifa into open view, demanding Gianni Infantino unlock billions from the organisation’s bulging 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, is a direct response to Infantino’s aborted Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan – a private equity-style proposal that detonated a storm of opposition and was scrapped within four days.

Power play after a failed plan

FFE would have created a new company to run the commercial and ticketing rights for all Fifa competitions, including World Cups, with 21% of that entity sold to an outside investment firm. In return, Infantino promised a huge cash windfall: $40m (£30m) per federation if they backed the project, and an initial $20m (£15m) if they signed up by 19 September.

Many did not. National associations and confederations raised red flags over governance, control and long‑term value. The backlash forced Infantino into a rapid retreat.

Now the counter-attack has arrived.

Ceferin and Montagliani argue that Fifa simply does not need private equity money. Their letter points to Fifa’s own projections, stating the organisation is “on course to close 2023-26 with reserves of approximately $6bn (£4.5bn)” – a figure they say is “considerably more than is required” to carry the governing body through to the 2030 men’s World Cup.

If the cash is already there, they ask, why sell off part of the game?

“These resources belong to football”

The letter calls on Fifa to release “at least $10m” to each of its 211 member associations over the 2027-30 cycle, earmarked for “investment in infrastructure and football development”. This would be a “one-off release of reserves” costing $2.11bn (£1.57bn), on top of the regular funding federations already receive.

The message is blunt: Fifa is sitting on a mountain of money, and it should be used to grow the sport, not to leverage new financial schemes.

“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 confederation leaders insist that financial caution must not become a shield for hoarding cash. “Prudence should not prevent a careful examination of whether a portion could responsibly be released to the extent those reserves exceed Fifa’s foreseeable needs,” they write.

The argument cuts to the heart of Infantino’s power. By tying record distributions to his FFE project, critics believe he was asking member associations to choose between money and scrutiny. Ceferin and Montagliani reject that trade-off outright.

“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,” the letter continues. “Development is an institutional responsibility of Fifa – not a matter of individual discretion.”

Call for an independent financial review

The document does more than ask for cash. It questions the very basis of Infantino’s push for private investment.

Ceferin and Montagliani say an analysis of Fifa’s published financial statements and budgets casts doubt on the claim that FFE was “necessary to deliver greater resources”. They stress that their assessment was “deliberately conservative” and suggest that an even larger payout from reserves might be possible once Fifa’s final year-end position is clear.

To settle the issue, they urge the Fifa Council to commission an “independent review” of the organisation’s finances, with “full access to the underlying figures and assumptions”. In other words, no more financial black boxes.

The move is not confined to Europe and North and Central America. A second letter, also seen by BBC Sport, has gone to the presidents of the remaining confederations in Asia, Africa, South America and Oceania, asking them to support the motion. If they do, Infantino faces coordinated pressure from across the global map, not just from his most vocal critics in Nyon.

Growing pressure on Infantino

The financial row lands just as another challenge to Infantino’s leadership surfaces from within his own inner circle.

Football Association chair Debbie Hewitt, a Fifa vice-president, has written separately to Infantino and Fifa secretary general Mattias Grafstrom, demanding the release of all documents linked to the FFE plan. She also wants a written explanation for the cancelled suspension of United States forward Folarin Balogun at the World Cup – a disciplinary decision that has raised eyebrows and questions over consistency.

Hewitt has told Infantino that all relevant documents should be on the table before the next Fifa Council meeting on 15 October. That meeting now looms as a flashpoint: a room full of power brokers, a president under scrutiny, and billions of dollars in reserves at the centre of the argument.

Uefa and Concacaf have made their move. The money is there, they say. The game needs it. The next step belongs to Fifa’s Council – and to a president who must decide whether to loosen his grip on the purse strings or risk a deeper fracture in football’s global politics.