World football scandal: UEFA and CONCACAF blackmail FIFA

The greed of European and North American football: UEFA and CONCACAF have declared war on the coffers of FIFA.

The governing bodies of European and North American football have overstepped the bounds in the fight for financial flows. Presidents of UEFA and CONCACAF Alexander Ceferin and Victor Montagliani actually put forward an ultimatum to the head of FIFA Gianni Infantino, demanding an emergency redistribution of huge funds from the reserves of the organization. In response, the president of world football has been forced to initiate a tough check to stop this unprecedented financial blackmail.

On September eighteen, Ceferin and Montagliani sent Infantino a letter demanding that each of the 211 national associations be allocated at least ten million dollars for a cycle from 2027 to 2030 on top of existing funding. The total amount of these claims reaches 2.1 billion dollars. At the same time, the authors of the demand showed a startling awareness of FIFA's inner pocket, saying that by the end of 2026, the organization's reserves will amount to about six billion dollars. Moreover, they demanded an independent audit of these reserves, cynically believing that after the distribution of money in the treasury will still remain half a billion.

This brazen request was a logical continuation of the saga with the cancellation of the commercial project FIFA Forward Enterprise. In July, it was UEFA, CONCACAF and the Asian Confederation that blocked private investment, angering the lack of consultation. Infantino made it clear that private money was meant to be an additional source of funding, not a replacement for existing development programs. However, European and North American officials, having deprived FIFA of the inflow of external funds, now demand to compensate for this loss at the expense of domestic reserves.

Gianni Infantino did not give in to this pressure. In a response message to the six presidents of the continental confederations, which was reviewed by Reuters on Monday, the FIFA chief ordered a thorough assessment of the validity of these financial appetites. Infantino categorically refused to recognize the $2.1 billion figure as any obligation, stressing that any payments are possible only after the strictest financial checks and official approval of the FIFA Council.

The head of FIFA has set strict conditions: continental confederations are obliged to provide the Secretary General with their financial models and all supporting calculations. FIFA special committees will scrutinise these figures. A final report with recommendations on the amount of payments, timing, audit criteria and protection of the organisation’s financial liabilities will be presented to the FIFA Council on 15 October. If the evidence base proves insufficient, Infantino demanded to approve the shortest possible deadlines for the completion of all audits. At the same time, he noted that the calculations will take into account the structural costs of those confederations that actually face objective difficulties.

Concluding his message, Infantino taught a lesson in institutional ethics to his opponents. He urged his colleagues to respect FIFA's democratic procedures and stop ignoring the decisions taken. True trust is built not on the absence of disagreements, but on the ability to conduct direct dialogue, rely on facts and obey decisions made within the framework of statutory processes, even if these decisions go against the personal ambitions and financial appetites of individual functionaries.