By Andrew Warshaw
August 30 – The thorny issue of FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s salary has burst into fresh controversy amid speculation that he is about to receive an improved pay deal after refusing to sign his original contract drawn up six months ago.
FIFA’s new-look compensation sub-committee meets for the first time tomorrow to assess Infantino’s remuneration package even though he was informed in March by the same committee – shortly after taking over from Sepp Blatter – that he would be earning $2m a year, a figure he reportedly denounced as “insulting.”
FIFA insists that the revamped compensation panel, including two newly appointed members, has every right to review Infantino’s pay under the statutes since the process has “not been finalised.” Yet it is understood that Infantino’s salary was directly communicated to him, under existing governance regulations, by the same body in its former guise.
If that is true, then FIFA’s version of events raises serious ethical questions about why the new-look panel should have the authority to re-examine the amount (at least until he is re-elected) and whether the rules are simply being manipulated to suit Infantino’s own ends.
Infantino has somehow worked without a pay deal since being elected on February 26 to head FIFA, leading to considerable tension between him and then-FIFA audit and compliance committee chairman Domenico Scala, who quit in May accusing Infantino of trying to compromise the organisation’s independent bodies.
As well as heading audit and compliance, Scala also led the original compensation committee that presented Infantino with his salary deal. Last month FIFA appointed Slovenia’s Tomaz Vesel in Scala’s place and recently added German lawyer Peter Braun to the same panel after a second member, the highly regarded Jean-Pierre Pedrazzini, also resigned.
Pedrazzini gave no reason for his departure but the assumption was that, like Scala, he could not stomach the controversial new regulation passed at May’s FIFA Congress allowing FIFA’s new ruling Council to hire and fire members of independent bodies.
The departures of both Scala and Pedrazzini immediately raised eyebrows in terms of whether their replacements would be more favourable to Infantino’s salary demands.
Intriguingly, the panel must also decide on a deal for FIFA’s new secretary general Fatma Samoura who, under the previous compensation committee membership, would have almost certainly been offered more money than the president since the job was deemed a CEO-like position. Payments to FIFA Council members, who currently get a basic annual stipend of $300,000, must also be approved by Vesel’s panel.
Infantino has pledged to announce all details of his earnings as part of FIFA’s anti-corruption reforms and insisted in an interview published Sunday that he will actually end up making less, not more, than £2 million a year, well below the salary of Blatter who made $3.6 million in 2015, only to be forced to resign and was then banned.
In his interview with Blick, Infantino described past dealings with FIFA’s compensation committee under Scala as “insulting” and “completely arbitrary” yet did not explain in detail why the revamped body had more right to set his pay than its predecessor.
Discussing negotiations when Scala was in charge, Infantino, cleared last month by FIFA’s ethics committee over his use of private jets and other allegations of wrongdoing, told Blick: “I expected to talk to these people about my salary based on guidelines and defined processes and not to face a fait accompli by Mr. Scala without a discussion.”
Insideworldfootball has learned, however, that Infantino was informed on March 23 about the decision of the Compensation Sub-Committee regarding his salary following at least two attempts at bilateral conversations. Which, to re-emphasise the point, begs the question as to why the new-look body needs to study the issue again so quickly and on what grounds.
It is also being reported that in addition to his salary, Infantino will receive a seven-figure pension if he stays for 12 years as FIFA president.
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