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FIFA will give cash to officials who attend annual conference

By Alexandra Huber

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FIFA to hand out up to more than half a million dollars cash to officials who attend May’s annual conference.

FIFA, the world’s least-upstanding international sports organization, made plenty of money from last year’s World Cup and now its plan to give some of it back. Not to Brazil, of course, but to its employees.

FIFA officials from all 209 associations are entitled to receive a stipend of $1,000 for a total of five days of attendance around the FIFA Congress. The official allowance, designated for personal expense, has been confirmed by FIFA itself.

Officials will receive the cash in U.S. dollars from a FIFA administrative office after providing proof of his or her identity and official accreditation. The 65th FIFA Congress will be held May 28-29 in Zurich, Switzerland.

According to a FIFA spokesman, the cash hand outs were necessary due to the logistics of payment.

"“The payment is made in cash as, from an administrative point of view, it would be extremely difficult to organize bank transfers for so many people (almost 700 people, with some of them who change at the last minute) and in 209 countries and because the transfer fees would be too high in proportion to the amount of the allowance.”"

Each of the 209 associations is entitled to receive a maximum allowance of $3,000 for three officials, equaling a total of more than $627,000 total in claimable cash.

In addition to the cash hand outs, FIFA pays basic living and accommodation costs. Basically, if you see a job posting to become a FIFA official, make sure to apply.

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Cash allowance such as these are allowed by FIFA, meaning there is no charge of improper benefits, it’s just FIFA being FIFA.

The cash payment would not be as big of a deal if FIFA were a relatively upstanding organization. Unfortunately, this is not the first time it has done some inexplicably shady things.

After Qatar was awarded the 2022 World Cup, reports surfaced that FIFA had accepted a bribe of more than $5 million from the host country. The Sunday Times revealed a cache of millions of documents revealing the secret payments that helped Qatar win the bid.

In 2011, Bin Hammam, Qatar’s top soccer official was banned from world soccer after it came out that he was attempting to bribe his way into the FIFA presidency. While the ban was lifted on appeal shortly after, citing insufficient direct evidence linking him to the crime, but Hammam was not cleared of the charges.

Additionally, the organization faced intense criticism last year surrounding the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

HBO’s John Oliver performed an epic take down of FIFA last summer, specifically regarding the organization’s rampant corruption, calling them a “comically grotesque organization.” Do yourself a favor and watch the video, it’s an incredibly well done.

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