FIFA Plans Huge Emergency Fund to Support Ailing Soccer Industry

Now officials at FIFA want to take advantage of one of the biggest cash reserves among global sporting bodies and use it to shield some of the worst hit parts of the industry, a move that would be similar to how governments around the world have acted to buttress parts of their economies in the face of the pandemic, according to the people, who declined to speak publicly because the plan has yet to to be formally agreed upon.

According to its latest annual report, published last year, FIFA had cash reserves of $2.74 billion. The organization is considering putting some of those reserves to use in the effort to prop up the ailing soccer economy and is also willing to borrow against its future television and sponsorship income to raise money for what is being described internally as a “football relief fund.”

The fund would require the approval of the FIFA Council, a 36-member group made up of soccer officials from the sport’s six regional confederations, before the plans can move forward.

The fund would be managed differently than FIFA’s current development structure, in which the organization’s administration is responsible for delivering $6 million across a four-year cycle to each of its 211 member associations, whatever their size or needs.

Officials at FIFA, based in Zurich, are making an assessment of the short- and medium-term impact of coronavirus on global soccer in order to work out how it can help the member associations, and who it will likely ask to act as a clearinghouse for requests for assistance in their countries. The fund could provide bridging loans and even emergency grants. There are concerns over whether the money will be directed to the most in need and not be misused, but the urgency of the situation has made that concern a secondary issue, according to one of the people.

The relief fund, according to the plan, would be managed independently from FIFA’s leadership to avoid the risk of being contaminated by sports political issues that have long roiled the soccer world. Relations between FIFA and some regional soccer leaders have soured as its president, Gianni Infantino, has moved to grow its influence beyond national team soccer and development and into club soccer.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/sports/soccer/coronavirus-fifa-soccer-emergency-fund.html