By Andrew Warshaw
July 16 – UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has issued a veiled swipe at FIFA for not sufficiently scrutinising how their development grants are being used by member federations.
At last month’s FIFA congress, president Gianni Infantino, who has massively increased funding to national associations, took personal credit for turning round FIFA’s fortunes.
But Ceferin hinted that the way the money is used by some associations left a lot to be desired and that UEFA had a far more effective blueprint.
Rekindling FIFA’s tarnished recent past, Ceferin told RT in an interview: “We work on good governance. We don’t send money to the associations to do whatever they want. We are not companies who only care about profit. Football associations (in Europe) have to show where they want to invest.”
Ceferin is not surprised that the World Cup was once again dominated by European teams and says the gap will only get “wider and wider.”
“Everybody knows we in Europe generate a lot of money (but) for me the most important question is not whether there is too much money in football but whether it is distributed properly as governing bodies.”
“We allocate the money properly. We have coaching conventions, we work with former players who don’t just watch the matches but help national associations.”
“There is never too much money in European football because we distribute it properly. If you generate revenue and then just send it to the associations, you never know what happens. You have to take care the money is used properly.”
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1714953080labto1714953080ofdlr1714953080owedi1714953080sni@w1714953080ahsra1714953080w.wer1714953080dna1714953080