March 31, 2022: Gianni Infantino takes the podium and delivers his speech to the Fifa Congress. The world’s most powerful football leader boasts of the efforts he has made to secure seven billion dollars in revenue for Fifa by 2022. Never has Fifa earned more than they do now. A large proportion of the income is generated from the WC in Qatar. The increased income is pushed out, among other things, to the member states. “Fifa Forward” is the prestigious project of Gianni Infantino, a project that helped to get him elected Fifa president in 2016. – Fifa has changed from being a toxic organization to becoming a credible organization because we invest in the world, we invest in football, concluded Infantino from the podium. NOK 24 billion has been distributed since 2016. But where does this money actually go? Refuses to answer for billion allocations Fifa Forward is structured so that all countries receive 500,000 dollars for normal operating costs. In addition, up to half a million dollars is paid out if a few simple criteria are met: If the country has, for example, a top series for women, they receive a certain sum a year. If the country has employed a secretary-general, this triggers new funds. SPEECH: Infantino addressed the Fifa congress in Qatar in March. There he made it clear that he would give member countries more money than they have ever received from Fifa. Photo: Hassan Ammar / AP In addition, a large proportion of the money is distributed as project funds for the development of tracks, facilities, office buildings and so on. In its statutes for Fifa Forward, the organization writes: “Fifa must be professional, impartial and transparent in its management of Forward”. For nine months, news has been trying to get an overview of the 24 billion kroner that Fifa has distributed since 2016. We have not succeeded. – The press should absolutely have that. Facilities are precisely something that is permanent and permanent and should benefit the sport for many years. So I don’t understand that, to put it very simply, says former Fifa member Per Ravn Omdal to news about the secrecy. These are the inquiries we have made to Fifa on 3 March 2022: news asks for more information about the project. We point out that the use of money must be completely open and ask, among other things, for a list of approved and rejected Forward projects, the number of violations of the statutes, etc. 11 March: A Fifa representative calls and says that they are working on the inquiry. We should get an answer next week. End of March: news calls the same Fifa representative. They are still working on the case. 24 April 2022: news sends a reminder by e-mail. We are called and have a digital meeting where Fifa explains how the money is distributed. 25 April: Fifa sends an e-mail with general answers and that news can ask to take a closer look at specific projects, without any list of specific projects being made available. 25 April: news points out that it is difficult to ask about specific projects when there is no overview of the projects that have been approved or rejected. 9 June: news sends a new reminder to Fifa. We don’t get any answers. Instead, Fifa has referred to annual reports, budgets and general figures. news has been told that if we have specific questions related to specific projects, we can ask for figures for these. PROFITABLE: The World Cup in Qatar is the most profitable of all time for Fifa. In 2022, they have 7.5 billion dollars in revenue. Photo: YARA ABI NADER / Reuters news therefore asked for applications, approved financial support and addresses for 27 track projects, ten stadium projects, eight technical centres, two headquarters and one beach soccer/futsal center spread over eleven different countries. The same inquiry went to the football associations in the same countries. After our inquiries and repeated reminders, we have only received one response from FIFA: – We hope to be able to get back to you as soon as possible. This answer came on September 5. We have been nagging since then, but Fifa has not come back. Fifa has indeed created an interactive map where you can see exactly how much money each individual association has been allocated. But in this map you will not find any concrete information about the projects that have been completed. One of those who have tried to investigate Fifa is Olof Lundh. He is a journalist and commentator for Fotbollskanalen and believes Fifa is only becoming more and more closed under Infantino. – Fifa is as far from openness and transparency as you can be. They just shut down. That is the reason for the whole problem around the organization. You don’t get access, you don’t get the opportunity to scrutinize them, says Lundh and adds: – It is private individuals who manage football in the countries that make use of that money. It’s a long story, but it’s hard to chart, since we don’t have access. In a way I think Fifa gets it, that’s why they don’t say where the money goes. The projects we have asked to see in Somalia: Two stadium projects, one technical centre. (Received $4.25 million for these projects) Venezuela: Three track projects, one stadium project and a technical center. (Received $2.25 million) Afghanistan: One headquarters, three track projects and one beach soccer/Futsal complex. (Received $2.463 million) Lebanon: One headquarters and two runway projects. (845 thousand dollars received) Equatorial Guinea: One track project. (974 thousand dollars received) Burundi: Four railway projects. (Received $2.536 million) Chad: Two track projects and two stadium projects. (Received $1.117 million) Nicaragua: Three track projects, three stadium projects and five technical centers. (Received $3.687 million) Haiti: One runway project. (282 thousand dollars received) Comoros: Two track projects and one stadium project. (Received $1.249 million) Gambia: Six track projects, one stadium project and one technical center. (1.116 million dollars received) In total, these projects correspond to over NOK 200 million at today’s exchange rate. – A coded message Fifa Forward was created immediately after Infantino was elected in 2016. This was his response to the corruption that had characterized the football organization for a number of years. Where Infantino’s predecessor, Sepp Blatter, had distributed money to nations more or less randomly via his “Goal Programme”, Fifa should now have specific criteria. In this way, one would ensure that a Fifa president would be able to buy votes from member states. CORRUPTION ACCUSED: Sepp Blatter has been accused of corruption, but has never been convicted. His “Goal Programme” is referred to as the way he secured support in the member states. Photo: FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP Miles Coleman has made the new Netflix documentary “Fifa Uncovered”. He has looked at the history of Fifa and how they ended up with all the corruption scandals in recent years. – What I can say is that when we looked at the “Goal programme”, Blatter and his people said that there were extensive control mechanisms for the programme. Fifa said that this was not money that you could spend as you wanted, this was money that they were going to control, says Coleman. Today, Fifa claims that there are extensive control mechanisms for the Forward programme. They say it is not money you can spend as you like and that they want to control the money. PRODUCER: Miles Coleman has made the Netflix documentary “Fifa Uncovered” – If we are to learn from history, we can only hope that Fifa mean it when they say they have improved control. Before they said there were control mechanisms, but it wasn’t really. All countries in Fifa, from football superpower Germany to the mini-putt island of Montserrat with 5,000 inhabitants, will from 2023 be paid 2 million dollars annually. For Montserrat, the sum corresponds to more than 2.5 percent of the entire island’s national budget. – We know that three quarters of you, around 150 of the member countries of Fifa, depend on the money you get from Fifa. You are dependent on the funds from Fifa Forward, Infantino asserted. Later at the congress, after stating that he had made the member states dependent on his own project, Infantino also said that he is running for re-election as president. When Infantino was first elected president in 2016, he told Congress that “Fifa’s money is their money.” – I think that some people saw that statement as a coded message where Infantino said that everything will be as it was – that the money Fifa has, in one way or another, will find its way back to you no matter what happens, says Coleman. Sponsor: Gianni Infantino together with the Chief Commercial Officer of Qatar Airways, Thierry Antinori. Qatar Airways is one of Fifa’s official sponsors. Photo: PAUL CHILDS / Reuters – Allocates money where there is a possibility of re-election There has been a storm around Infantino throughout the World Cup. First he asked the national teams going to the World Cup to stop thinking about politics and rather focus on football, before a few days later he called for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine while the World Cup was in progress. For Infantino not only has friends in football, he is often pictured with heads of state: Infantino presents a football kit to former President of the United States, Donald Trump, in the White House. NORTH KOREA: Infantino arrives at Pyongyang Airport in North Korea in connection with a football match between North Korea and South Korea in 2019. Infantino in the stands with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, during the World Cup. Infantino receives a friendship medal from the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in 2019. Infantino in the stands with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, at a boxing match in Jeddah earlier this year. Infantino at the G20 meeting in Bali just before the World Cup. There he asked, among other things, for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine while the World Cup in Qatar took place. Here together with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Just before the start of the World Cup, Fifa and Qatar made a complete U-turn when they decided that there would still be no alcohol sales in the stands during the World Cup. The day before the World Cup kicked off, he gave an hour-long monologue in which he attacked the Western media and the criticism that has come against Qatar in recent months. – This one-sided moral sermon, it’s just hypocritical, Infantino said of the criticism. VIP: Fifa have sold more VIP tickets to the World Cup in Qatar than they have ever done before. Here is one of the VIP areas at the final stadium Lusail. Photo: MUSTAFA ABUMUNES / AFP It is the Fifa Congress that elects its president. In the spring, Infantino is the only presidential candidate in the election. He will begin his second full term as president at the same time as Fifa Forward cash payouts increase. For many, it may seem strange that he can run without opposing candidates. – There are 211 member countries in Fifa, and I understand it to mean that 207 of these countries support Infantino. We are not among them. And we won’t be either, said the football president in Denmark, Jesper Møller, at a press conference a few days into the World Cup, according to The Athletic. But why do so many people support the president? – What has been seen, both in the time of Blatter, but also now under Infantino, is that the money is allocated in relation to election periods. You allocate money where you see an opportunity to get re-elected, to put it simply, says Omdal. – Infantino increased the allocations in March after establishing that the countries were dependent on the money from Fifa. Is this his way of securing power? – That sounds familiar. If you study both behavior and actual actions in relation to budgeting and income, then I think it fits quite well. The next Fifa presidential election is in March 2023. Then Infantino will be re-elected.
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