By Andrew Warshaw
February 29 – Gianni Infantino will earn less than his disgraced predecessor Sepp Blatter when he takes on the job of reforming FIFA, Insideworldfootball has learned. And whoever becomes his second in command will have to accept a smaller pay packet than former secretary general Jerome Valcke who, like Blatter, is banned from the game.
According to FIFA accounts, $39.7 million was paid to “key management personnel” in 2014. But the collapse in confidence as a result of the corruption scandal was laid bare on election day with the revelation that FIFA were paying $10 million a month in legal bills and are $550 million behind revenue projections for their four-year cycle.
Under the reform programme, FIFA are expected to announce in two weeks how much Blatter earned during his tempestuous 18-year reign. Estimates put the figure at $5 million a year yet it has been confirmed to Insideworldfootball that Infantino will have to be content with taking home less, even though he is the man chosen to clean up the corruption-scarred organisation.
Executive committee members, too, are facing a lowering of their remuneration under a new wage structure as part of the body’s rebranding as a 36-member council.
It also been decided by FIFA’s compensation committee that Infantino should be paid less than his new number two now that the presidency has been stripped of much of its executive power.
Exactly who gets that job is open to considerable conjecture. FIFA’s wide-ranging reforms, approved just a few hours before Infantino upset Asian football chief Shaikh Salman in the race to succeed Blatter, require the new secretary-general to take on more of a CEO role than in the past.
Infantino has made it clear he wants to appoint a non-European, and while on the campaign trail he had indicated it might be an African, yet he will not be allowed to adopt the same autocratic style as Blatter. The spirit of the reform package, which comes into effect in 60 days after a cooling-off period, means candidates for senior positions will have to go through a proper selection process.
Although Infantino will technically have the power to appoint his chief assistant at his first FIFA executive committee next month which takes place under old rules, he will be under pressure to follow the new process, with a likely executive search and a shortlist before anyone is handed the job.
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