FIFA President Gianni Infantino has secured a 33% pay rise to run world football which meant his salary exceeded £3.6m last year, Sky News has found.
The increase during the Women’s World Cup year featured deep in financial documents approved by the FIFA Council yesterday and sent to global football officials.
Mr Infantino’s base salary was 1.95m Swiss francs (£1.7m) in 2022 with a bonus of 1.65m Swiss francs (£1.5m) – a total equating to about £3.2m.
Spain won the Women’s World Cup in 2023. Pic: Reuters
In a previously-undisclosed decision by the FIFA compensation subcommittee, Mr Infantino’s base pay was raised to 2.6m Swiss francs (£2.3m) following his re-election for a third term as president last year.
The rise was applied during last year meaning he earned 2,463,710 Swiss francs (£2.2m) along with a bonus of 1,650,000 Swiss francs (£1.5m) – the same as the previous year.
That means he earned 4.1m Swiss francs (£3.6m) in total during the Women’s World Cup year of 2023.
Before the final in Sydney, he told women to “pick the right battles” in their fight for equal pay, placing the emphasis on them to “force the change”.
He will earn the full 2.6m Swiss francs annually – plus any annual bonus – for the rest of his term until 2027.
After being elected FIFA president in 2016, Mr Infantino agreed an annual base salary of 1.5 million Swiss francs (£1.3m).
Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter in 2022. Pic: Reuters
He can now remain in power until 2031 after changes to the statutes which allow him to seek a fourth term, having started by completing the three years of banned predecessor Sepp Blatter’s mandate.
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Mr Infantino is not earning pay from FIFA on the levels of Mr Blatter who earned a bonus alone of $12m (£9.4m) for the 2014 World Cup but only later disclosed by investigators amid less transparency during that era at the governing body.
Last year produced record revenue from the Women’s World Cup with FIFA’s overall annual earnings of $1.17bn (£0.9m) representing a 53% rise from the 2019 Women’s World Cup year.
FIFA is projecting revenue to soar to $11bn (£8.6bn) in the 2023-26 cycle ending with the expanded 48-team men’s World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada – up from $7.6bn (£6bn) 2019-2022 covering the Qatar World Cup which featured 32 countries.
It’s ironic that the FIFA boss is telling women to ‘force change’ in the fight for equal pay, when he’s the one who’s getting a pay rise.
I’ll believe it when I see it. FIFA has a long history of making promises and not delivering.
I think it’s important to remember that FIFA is a business. They need to make money in order to survive. And if that means giving their boss a pay rise, then so be it.
Let’s not forget that FIFA is a non-profit organization. So, technically, the boss’s pay rise isn’t coming out of anyone’s pocket.
I wonder how much of that pay rise will go towards funding the fight for equal pay. It seems like a bit of a contradiction to me.
How can FIFA justify giving their boss a 33% pay rise when so many other employees are struggling to make ends meet? It’s a disgrace.
I guess the FIFA boss thinks he’s worth his weight in gold. Literally.
Yeah, right. FIFA cares about women’s football. They just want to make more money.
Oh, great. Just what we needed. Another overpaid FIFA official.
I hope this pay rise is a sign that FIFA is finally committed to making women’s football a priority.
This is a great step forward for women’s football. It shows that FIFA is finally taking the issue of equal pay seriously.