UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani have called on FIFA to distribute at least $10 million to each of its 211 member associations, pressing president Gianni Infantino to release $2.11 billion from the governing body’s cash reserves.
In a letter sent to Infantino on Friday, 18 September 2026, the two confederation leaders proposed a one-off release of reserves for investment in infrastructure and the development of the game. The request concerns the 2027-2030 financial cycle and is directed at the national federations that will elect FIFA’s next president.
FIFA is on course to close the 2023-2026 financial cycle with reserves of approximately $6 billion. Ceferin and Montagliani said those reserves far exceed the requirements needed up to the end of the 2030 World Cup.
The proposed payments would be entirely on top of the core funding already committed through FIFA Forward, the letter said. The demanded funds would be restricted to investment in infrastructure and development of the game.
Ceferin and Montagliani argued that the proposed FIFA Forward Enterprise scheme was unnecessary, given FIFA’s reserve position. They also called for an independent review of FIFA’s finances, with “full access to the underlying figures and assumptions”.
The letter does not set out the financial projections that led the two leaders to question the need for the enterprise. It also does not explain how FIFA’s internal rules would govern a distribution of this size.
The intervention follows the rapid withdrawal of Infantino’s FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal. The plan would have created a new company to manage the commercial and ticketing rights for all FIFA competitions, including World Cups, with 21% sold to an investment company.
The idea was scrapped after four days amid widespread opposition from national associations. Infantino had sought to sell a stake in World Cup commercial operations to private investors as part of the proposal, which he said was intended to raise capital for football around the world.
European football also opposed the plan, and UEFA threatened to boycott all FIFA competitions over the investor proposal. When the FIFA Forward Enterprise was revealed, Infantino told members they would receive $40 million if they backed it.
Infantino also set a deadline of 19 September for federations to accept his plans if they wanted access to an initial $20 million. The letter from Ceferin and Montagliani offers an alternative approach: a direct allocation from FIFA’s existing reserves to every member association.
FIFA’s formal response to the letter has not been disclosed. It is also unclear whether other continental confederations or national associations will support the proposal.
Infantino has been FIFA president since 2016. By seeking a collective distribution of reserves before the next presidential election, UEFA and CONCACAF have put the use of FIFA’s financial resources at the centre of a dispute over the organisation’s future direction.
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