FIFA president Gianni Infantino received an undeclared second salary payment of £1.3 million from a World Cup company in 2024, according to a Sky Sports report. The money came from FWC2026, the entity FIFA set up to manage and operate the 2026 World Cup, and was not listed in FIFA’s annual report for that year.
ESPN separately reported the figure as $1.72 million, while Sky Sports put the payment at £1.3 million, or roughly $1.76 million. Both outlets agree the sum came from FWC2026 and was kept separate from Infantino’s regular FIFA compensation.
What The Documents Show
FIFA’s 2024 annual report listed Infantino’s salary and benefits at £3.88 million, or about $5.1 million, from his FIFA role alone. That figure did not include the additional money from FWC2026, which only came to light through an IRS Form 990, the annual filing required of U.S.-based nonprofits. FWC2026 is registered in the United States, which is why the payment surfaced in tax paperwork rather than FIFA’s own financial disclosures.
Combined, Infantino’s FIFA salary and the FWC2026 payment put his total 2024 compensation at roughly 4.274 million Swiss francs from FIFA, close to $4.86 million, plus the separate World Cup payment on top. The Times first reported the extra compensation from FWC2026 before ESPN and Sky Sports followed with their own figures.
Not every FWC2026 official received extra pay. FIFA Secretary General Mattias Grafstrom took no additional payment from the entity, and Concacaf president Victor Montagliani, who chaired the FWC2026 board, also received nothing beyond his usual compensation.
FIFA Statutes And The Transparency Question
FIFA’s own governing rules are specific on this point. Article 43, paragraph 13 of the FIFA statutes requires that the individual compensation of the FIFA president be made public. The World Cup payment from FWC2026 was not included in that disclosure for 2024.
Miguel Maduro, a former chairman of FIFA’s governance committee, told The Times the arrangement raises a clear problem. “It is a clear contravention of the rules if he is paid other amounts by companies related to FIFA and it is not made public. The FIFA statutes impose an obligation of full transparency,” Maduro said, according to ESPN. His comments point directly at the gap between what FIFA disclosed and what the tax filing revealed.
FIFA’s Response
A FIFA spokesperson pushed back on the characterization of the payment as a violation, telling ESPN in a text message that “FIFA fully complies with all reporting requirements and strongly rejects any suggestion there has been a violation of FIFA’s Statutes.” In a separate statement to Sky Sports, FIFA said the president’s compensation and other contractual benefits are decided by the FIFA compensation sub-committee and that FIFA contributes to social charges, pension fund and other contractual employee benefits for the president, which are reported to U.S. authorities in line with reporting requirements.
Wider Context For Infantino
The disclosure comes months after Infantino drew criticism over a separate matter. He had pursued a plan, dubbed Football Forward Enterprises, to sell a 20% stake in the World Cup to outside investors led by Joshua Kushner. That proposal prompted the heads of UEFA, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation to call for Infantino’s resignation. UEFA president Aleksandar Ceferin has led the push to find a challenger, and UEFA said it wants a successor who is “a respected and unifying figure, deeply rooted in football,” according to Fox Sports.
Despite that pressure, Infantino has confirmed he will stand for re-election as FIFA president in March 2027 as planned. The FIFA presidential election is scheduled for March 18 in Rabat, Morocco. Any candidate looking to challenge him has until Nov. 18 to formally declare an intention to run, a window that puts added scrutiny on the compensation report as the race takes shape.
What’s Next
No investigation or formal governance action tied to the FWC2026 payment has been announced. The next confirmed milestone is the Nov. 18 deadline for challengers to declare candidacy, followed by the March 18 presidential vote in Rabat.
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