FIFA’S E9.4 MILLION COVID – 19 RELIEF PLAN FOR EFA!

MBABANE – FIFA will release all operational funding due to member associations for the year 2019/20 in the coming days, as the first step of a relief plan to assist the football community impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

FIFA stands for the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA), the world football’s governing body.  This measure will mean that a total of around E2.8 billion (US$150 million) will be distributed among the 211 national football governing bodies around the world. Concretely, it means that FIFA will release E9.4 million (US$500 000) to each member association in the coming days as well as any remaining entitlement for 2019 and 2020. This is according to a report sourced from fifa.com.

“The pandemic has caused unprecedented challenges for the entire football community and, as the world governing body, it is FIFA’s duty to be there and support the ones that are facing acute needs,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

“This starts by providing immediate financial assistance to our member associations, many of which are experiencing severe financial distress. This is the first step of a far-reaching financial relief plan we are developing to respond to the emergency across the whole football community. Together with our stakeholders, we are assessing the losses and we are working on the most appropriate and effective tools to implement the other stages of this relief plan,” said the President.

fifa’s commitment

“I would like to thank the chairpersons of the FIFA Development Committee, Shaikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, and the FIFA Finance Committee, Alejandro Domínguez, for their commitment and urgent approval of these measures by their committees,” he said.
He said as part of the measure, all remaining entitlements of member associations to operational costs under the Forward 2.0 Programme will be released in full for the years 2019 and 2020.

“In particular, the release of the second instalment of operational costs for 2020, which was originally due in July, will be paid immediately,” he said.
“Under normal circumstances, FIFA’s member associations would have only received the full amount of the contribution upon fulfilment of specific criteria. Instead, FIFA is now transferring this amount as an active support to help safeguard football across all member associations,” the president further said in the statement.

The president said this immediate financial assistance should be used to mitigate the financial impact of COVID-19 on football in member associations.

obligations and responsibilities
“It should meet financial or operational obligations that they may have towards staff and other third parties. The standard obligations and responsibilities in relation to the use of these funds as outlined in the Forward 2.0 Regulations remain fully applicable and will be subject to the standard audit and reporting process,” narrated the president.

Reached for comment, EFA’s Marketing and Communications Officer Muzi Radebe confirmed that he read the report on the FIFA website.
“I read the report on Friday on the FIFA website. However, I cannot comment on it because we have not yet received a formal correspondence from FIFA,” Radebe said.
Meanwhile, Premier League of Eswatini Chief Operations Officer (COO) Pat Vilakati said as an affiliate of EFA they could only comment once they received a formal correspondence from the mother body.

The EFA Medical Committee last Friday submitted a budget of E700 000 to the executive committee to help football fight the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The budget solely covered the Premier League teams. The money is to cover fumigating stadiums and buying sanitisers for football officials among other necessities.

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