FIFA’s Covid-cash boss says football will lose $14bn in revenue during pandemic

September 17 – Football across the world will lose out on about $14 billion in revenue because of the effects of Covid-19, according to the official who leads the organisation’s coronavirus relief fund.

This bleak picture was laid bare by Olli Rehn (pictured), head of the steering committee for FIFA’s $1.5 billion Covid relief programme.

“It’s a huge number and it covers the football economy in its entirety, including all youth academies,” said Rehn, a former EU commissioner and now governor of the Bank of Finland,

“This will impact next year as well, there is a carry over. That is why this Covid-19 relief fund is not time-bound – they may request loans later on if they need to.

“If you look at the breakdown of the impact, clubs and member associations in Europe were most impacted in absolute terms, but relatively those outside of Europe have suffered more, in particular in South America, many on account of their relative means and the spring to autumn season.”

Rehn, who is also acting as FIFA’s Governance Committee Deputy Chairman, has been overseeing the operation of the relief plan, launched for the benefit of FIFA’s 211 member associations and six confederations.

“At the peak of the pandemic, football had completely stopped in all but four of FIFA’s 211 member associations.”

“It had a very dramatic impact. The estimated impact of the disruption was around 14 billion USD,” the equivalent, Rehn stated, of roughly one-third of the entire football economy.

“The implementation of the COVID-19 relief plan is an ongoing process and so far we have received applications from over 150 member associations.”

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