By Andrew Warshaw
January 28 – Sepp Blatter (pictured) has made a potentially significant pre-emptive strike in his bid to hold on to the FIFA Presidency by donating to every federation an extra $300,000 (£189,000) as a share of profits from the 2010 World Cup.
Blatter will learn by April 1 whether anyone will take him on at the Presidential election two months later but has taken the step of increasing the coffers of FIFA’s member nations, a canny goodwill gesture he will hope earns him widespread support.
FIFA said on Friday that the payment was in addition to the $250,000 (£157,800) every country gets annually towards its football development and running costs.
Brunei is currently suspended and is the only one of FIFA’s 208 members excluded.
In addition, each of FIFA’s six continental confederations gets a whopping $2.5 million (£1.5 million).
“This decision by the FIFA Executive Committee has been made possible thanks to the outstanding success of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, which led to a very good financial result for FIFA for the entire 2007-2010 period,” the governing body said in a statement.
FIFA’s annual financial report due in March is expected to reveal total commercial revenues of around $3.4 billion (£2.1 billion) for the four-year cycle.
“The funds are to be invested first and foremost in the development of football and to enable FIFA member associations to take part in FIFA competitions,” the statement said.
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