FIFA to strictly police increased funding to members and continental blocs

The Development Committee of International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) is set to increase its funding to all 211 national football associations and the five continental blocs under its ambit.

All member associations under the ‘FIFA Forward’ programme would be entitled to $1.25 million (£940,000/€1.1 million) over a four-year period. The new figure is about four times the previous amount of $400,000 (£300,000/€360,000). At the heart of the programme, FIFA has set a stringent oversight mechanism to tackle issues relating to misuse of funds.

Following a meeting of the Development Committee (headed by Asian football chief Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa), it was announced that all Member Associations and Confederations can now apply for funds under the FIFA Forward programme.

FIFA disclosed that associations would have until June 1 next year to wrap up their contracts of agreed objectives with key performance indicators.

“FIFA Forward’s aim is to best fulfil FIFA’s mission of developing the game around the world,” Infantino said. FIFA would however not entertain misuse and abuse of the funds, Infantino warned when it was approved at the FIFA Congress in Mexico City, in May.

Key priorities will be to ensure proper implementation & oversight: Enhanced accountability, monitoring & reporting. https://t.co/vqQ05lJdtH

— Fatma Samoura (@fatma_samoura) July 13, 2016

The five Confederations within FIFA have also been given a spike in funding, the previous $22 million (£16.5 million/€20 million) shoots up to $40 million (£30 million/€36 million) over a period.

As part of the FIFA initiative, a total of $500,000 (£375,000/€450,000) of the funding increase to national federations will come from what Infantino describes as “running costs”.

FIFA will grant the other $750,000 (£560,000/€670,000) for projects “tailored to the specific needs of the member associations”.

“This is not simply about providing more funds to Member Associations and Confederations, but about providing concrete assistance to the football community via the transparent use of funds, and changing the culture towards a greater impact of FIFA’s development activities that can systematically be measured,” Infantino added.