Gianni Infantino has signalled he is ready to open FIFA’s $6bn cash reserves to member associations, softening a position he had defended all summer with a rival $20bn private-investment plan.
In a letter to confederation presidents and FIFA Council members dated Monday, Infantino wrote that he would “support the greatest level of additional funding that can responsibly be delivered through FIFA’s proper governance process, applied fairly and supported by transparent and auditable arrangements,” Goal reported, citing the text of the letter first obtained by Matt Hughes for The Guardian.
He did not commit to a figure.
“A single figure can begin the discussion, but it cannot complete a global policy,” Infantino wrote.
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“I have therefore instructed the Secretary General to consolidate all submissions into one integrated assessment for consideration by the FIFA Council on 15 October 2026.”
Ceferin and Montagliani’s $2.1bn ask
The trigger was a joint letter from UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani, who asked FIFA to pay at least $10m to every one of its 211 member associations during the 2027 to 2030 commercial cycle in addition to existing development funding. Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa sent a similar request. Meeting the demand in full would cost around $2.1bn.
Infantino’s first move under that pressure came on 22 September, when he told the 211 associations he would ask the Council to “commission an independent external review of Fifa’s current governance framework”. Six days later he was writing to the same audience about the reserves themselves.
Forward Enterprise fell in 72 hours
The reserves are back in play because an earlier plan collapsed on impact. FIFA Forward Enterprise, unveiled on 28 July and withdrawn within 72 hours, was Infantino’s answer to the same funding question: a subsidiary valued at $20bn, with Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital as anchor investor, aiming to raise $4.2bn for a 20% equity stake. Each federation had been offered $20m under the scheme, doubling the existing $10m allocation, with rising figures pencilled in for later cycles.
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The plan fell in the face of opposition from UEFA, CONCACAF and the AFC, with European confederations reportedly ready to boycott FIFA competitions. Announcing the withdrawal, Infantino said the project had “created divisions of a nature that, regardless of the level of support, are no longer in the interest of the objective set out in the first place”.
The reserves now inherit that argument.
“The recent commercial proposal, now withdrawn, was intended to enable FIFA to invest more in football, not to replace support that could responsibly be provided from existing resources,” Infantino wrote in his Monday letter.
Premier League’s 100-day ultimatum
Pressure from Europe hardened on Friday when the Premier League joined the Bundesliga, LaLiga and Serie A in setting a 100-day ultimatum for governance reform after the March 2027 FIFA presidential election. The four leagues, founding members of European Leagues and the World Leagues Association, called on the winner to convene an “independently chaired Governance Convention” within their first 100 days and to give leagues, clubs and players a meaningful role in FIFA’s decision-making.
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“FIFA’s governance problem goes far beyond the role of one individual,” the four leagues said in their joint statement.
Confederations do not control how their 211 members vote at Congress, where each association casts its own ballot, but the coordinated pressure from UEFA, CONCACAF, the AFC and the major European leagues has forced the Zurich agenda open in a way the summer’s private-investment route did not.
FIFA Council members meet in Zurich on 15 October, with Secretary General Mattias Grafström presenting the consolidated assessment of every confederation submission. Infantino faces a presidential election in March 2027.
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