The elective congresses of the International Football Federation (FIFA) follow and look alike. As in Paris in 2019, the Italian-Swiss Gianni Infantino, 52, was reappointed to the presidency of the organization by its 211 member national federations, Thursday March 16, following a vote by acclamation during the conclave organized in Kigali (Rwanda). Unsurprisingly: he was the only candidate for his succession and only a handful of European countries, such as Norway and Germany, did not support his renewal.
The former secretary general of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), who could remain in charge of FIFA until 2031 according to the statutes of the body, has locked his empire in three turns. The organization’s financial balance sheet is its best electoral argument.
If the reign of his predecessor, Sepp Blatter (1998-2015), had coincided with an explosion in FIFA’s income and a redistribution of this financial windfall to member federations for electoral purposes, FIFA has become a monstrous “cash machine”. since Mr. Infantino’s induction in February 2016.
The self-proclaimed “New FIFA”
The instance is sitting on a pile of gold. It announced a record turnover of 7.6 billion dollars (around 7 billion euros) at the end of the 2019-2022 commercial cycle. Its reserves amount to 3.97 billion dollars at the end of 2022. For the 2023-2026 cycle, FIFA has anticipated revenues, excluding the Club World Cup, of 11 billion dollars, thanks in particular to the extension of the World Cup to 48 teams, from the 2026 edition, co-organized by the United States, Mexico and Canada. A windfall that feeds clientelism.
The organization is proud to have multiplied by “investment in football development by seven compared to the pre-2016 period”. It also claims to have set up “a $1.5 billion relief package available to the global football community in the form of grants and loans” during the Covid-19 epidemic.
The self-proclaimed “New FIFA” prides itself above all on having initiated “reforms of governance and financial management” and boast “ his serious and professional approach to things » which would contrast with the Blatter era and its cortege of corruption scandals.
“The money is no longer disappearing, there are no disastrous expenses of half a billion in buildings in Zurich that do not belong to FIFA, no bonuses of tens of millions of dollars, no contracts of media rights granted at a discount for obscure reasons”, assures the body, while Mr. Infantino, whose total annual remuneration amounts to 3.62 million euros, offered himself a bonus of 1.66 million euros after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. After having lived for a year in Qatar, Mr. Infantino is domiciled in the canton of Zug (Switzerland), renowned for its advantageous tax regime.
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