… as compensation for criminal activities of former football officials

THE United States Department of Justice has awarded the sum of $201M to the Football’s world governing body, FIFA’s Foundation as compensation for the losses suffered by FIFA, CONCACAF and CONMEBOL as victims of decades of football corruption schemes.
The money was seized from the bank accounts of former officials who were involved in, and then prosecuted for, years of corruption schemes in football.
“I am delighted to see that money which was illegally siphoned out of football is now coming back to be used for its proper purposes, as it should have been in the first place,” said FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

“I want to sincerely thank the U.S. Justice authorities for their efforts in this respect, for their fast and effective approach in bringing these matters to a conclusion, and also for their trust in general. The truth is that, thanks to their intervention back in 2015, we have been able to fundamentally change FIFA from a toxic organisation at the time, to a highly esteemed and trusted global sports governing body,” the FIFA boss said.
The funds will go into a newly formed World Football Remission Fund, established under the auspices of the FIFA Foundation to help finance football-related projects with positive community impact across the globe.

The World Football Remission Fund will be operated under the auspices of the FIFA Foundation, which is an independent foundation aimed to promote positive social change around the world through football.
According to FIFA, the Fund, which is intended to have a particular focus on youth and community programmes, will have earmarked amounts to projects within CONCACAF and CONMEBOL, given that they suffered significantly as a result of the criminal activities.
In addition, all projects will be submitted to strict monitoring, auditing and compliance checks to guarantee full transparency and accountability.