Nyon: In a letter sent to FIFA President Gianni Infantino on Friday, Ceferin and Montagliani, who are both FIFA vice presidents, proposed that every member association receive at least $10 million during the 2027-2030 financial cycle for investment in football infrastructure and development. The funding would come on top of money already committed under FIFA’s existing Forward Programme.

The proposal follows FIFA’s decision to abandon the FIFA Forward Enterprise project, which had been presented to member associations as a plan to bring in outside investors by selling a stake linked to FIFA competitions, with the aim of generating additional development funding.

Ceferin and Montagliani said their analysis of FIFA’s published financial results and budgets raised questions over whether such a deal was needed in the first place.

“Our analysis now raises an important question about whether the proposed deal is necessary to provide greater resources to member associations,” the letter said.

According to their assessment, FIFA is on course to finish the 2023-2026 cycle with reserves of around $6 billion, the largest in the organisation’s history, suggesting it already has significant capacity to provide additional funding directly from its own balance sheet.

Under the proposal, distributing at least $10 million to each of FIFA’s 211 associations would amount to approximately $2.1 billion. The payment would be an exceptional, one-time allocation, while the FIFA Forward Programme would continue in full.

Ceferin and Montagliani argued that even after making the proposed distribution, FIFA’s reserves would remain above approximately $1.5 billion throughout the next cycle. They said this would still be around 50 per cent higher than the minimum reserve level set by FIFA in its 2023-2026 budget.

However, the two officials acknowledged that their analysis remains preliminary. It combines FIFA’s published financial results for 2022-2025 with estimates for 2026 and assumptions covering the 2027-2030 cycle.

They have therefore called for an independent review with full access to FIFA’s financial figures and underlying assumptions before any formal recommendations are made through the organisation’s governance structures.

The letter said that once a clearer picture of FIFA’s finances is available at the end of the year, the FIFA Council could decide whether an even larger distribution is feasible and whether a similar model could be considered for the 2031-2034 cycle.

Ceferin and Montagliani also framed the dispute as a governance issue, arguing that national associations should not have to choose between securing development funding and being able to independently assess proposals made by FIFA.

The intervention comes as tensions surrounding the abandoned FIFA Forward Enterprise project continue, while Infantino is expected to seek another term as FIFA president in the March 2027 election.