European football chief tells FIFA’s Infantino to ‘remember he is a European’ after $40 million funding offer drew backing from major African powers

FIFA president Gianni Infantino is facing a widening rift with European football authorities after his now-abandoned plan to offer member associations access to as much as $40 million in funding drew backing from several major African football powers.

• A major dispute has erupted within FIFA regarding leadership and the control of global football revenues.
• FIFA president Gianni Infantino proposed creating a commercial subsidiary (FFE) to increase funding for member associations, with significant benefits for African federations.
• The proposal was abandoned after opposition from UEFA, Concacaf, and the Asian Football Confederation.
• The row highlights the tensions between football's wealthy European market and developing nations, with Africa’s 54 votes key in any future FIFA leadership and commercial decisions.

The dispute has exposed competing interests over how FIFA distributes its growing commercial revenues, with UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin telling Infantino to “remember he is a European”, according to the BBC, while several African football leaders rallied behind the FIFA president.

Infantino’s funding model has particular appeal in Africa, where many national associations have fewer commercial resources than their European counterparts and rely more heavily on FIFA development support.

That financial dependence also gives the continent political weight, with Africa’s 54 associations making up more than a quarter of FIFA’s 211 members, while football leaders from Morocco, Egypt, Niger, Mauritania, DR Congo and Sudan, alongside the wider CAF leadership, have backed Infantino.

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FIFA offered federations up to $40 million

At the centre of the dispute was the proposed FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), which Infantino described as a “golden opportunity” to expand football development worldwide.

The plan would have combined FIFA’s broadcast, sponsorship, licensing, ticketing, hospitality and other commercial rights with the operational delivery of its tournaments.

If approved, FIFA Forward funding for each member association would have risen from $8 million in the 2023-2026 cycle to $20 million between 2027 and 2030.

FIFA said that would amount to more than $4 billion across its 211 member associations.

Each federation could also have accessed another $20 million through the proposed FIFA Fast Forward Programme, taking potential funding to $40 million per association over four years.

For African football bodies, the proposal offered a substantial increase in resources for infrastructure, national teams and player development.

“More revenue returned to the Member Associations means more investment in better pitches, stronger national teams, and more pathways for young girls and young boys everywhere in the world,” Infantino said.

He also argued that too little of football’s growing commercial value was reaching countries with the greatest development needs.

“Too little of football’s growing commercial value reaches the parts of the game that need it most. Capturing that value requires additional expertise, additional insight, distinct from governing and developing the sport. It is a golden opportunity to turbocharge the development of the game globally,” he said.

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Africa’s funding needs sharpen the debate

The proposed increase carried particular weight in African countries where governments and football federations have limited resources for stadiums, training facilities and competitions.

Fleetwood Haiya, president of the Football Association of Malawi, pointed to those pressures.

“Our government is not able to make sure that they have medical supplies in hospitals and at the same time to look at football. Malawi needs money. Malawi needs stadiums,” Haiya said.

FIFA’s baseline Forward programme currently guarantees each of its 211 member associations $8 million over a four-year cycle, while CAF also provides annual grants to its members.

The proposed structure would therefore have given African federations access to development funding well above current levels.

CAF, however, did not formally endorse the FFE proposal before FIFA withdrew it. The continental body said its executive committee would assess and evaluate the initiative while stressing the need to secure more financial resources for African football.

Infantino abandoned the project two days later following intense opposition from other football confederations.

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Europe pushes back

European football authorities took a different position, with UEFA, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation opposing Infantino’s approach.

Ceferin accused the FIFA president of framing the dispute as a contest between wealthy Europe and poorer football nations.

“They [Fifa] play on, you know, '[how] arrogant Europe is against us: They have enough money, but I help the small and the poor',” Ceferin said, according to the BBC.

“But I think someone should remind him that he is a European, and that he was supported by Uefa, which he forgot.”