The FAI is set to get a boost in funding. It comes after FIFA is releasing 150 million dollars to it’s national associations whose finances have been affected by the Covid 19 pandemic.
RTE Sport report that the world soccer governing body will give each of it’s 211 members 500,000 dollars. This equates to about 462,000 euro. This will be paid in the coming days along with any entitlement under the Forward 2.0 development programme. The news comes as good news for the FAI who are currently in debts of around 45 million euro. Staff in the organisation have already had to take pay cuts of up to 50% due to the pandemic.
Gary Owens interim CEO of the FAI said. “We’ve reached out to FIFA… we can’t reach out to UEFA anymore… but we are reaching out to FIFA and we will be there to try and support whatever way we can.”
The FIFA President Gianni Infantino has described the payment as the first step of helping the associations. “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”.
RTE Sport report that FIFA said the funding came from 2019 and 2020 operational funding. Furthermore, FIFA have stated that the next stages of funding are currently been worked on. This will be communicated to the organisations in the coming weeks. FIFA have a lot of funding there, with cash reserves around 2.7 billion euros.
