9 | Football Governance

Football Governance consists of all expenditure in relation to FIFA’s statutory objective to govern association football and related matters. It includes Football Governance bodies and third parties, which act as regulators of football, defining and protecting the Laws of the Game. Consequently, it does not include any governance relating to FIFA itself, which is presented under FIFA Governance & Administration (see Note 10).

The Appeal, Disciplinary and Ethics Committees are FIFA’s judicial bodies and also three of FIFA’s four independent committees. Together with the decision-making chambers of the Football Tribunal – the Players’ Status Chamber (PSC) and the Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) – they represent FIFA’s Football Governance bodies.

The judicial bodies apply the criteria and rules as defined by the FIFA Governance Regulations and are elected by the Congress for four-year terms. In 2021, their activities resulted in expenses of USD 2.4 million (2020: USD 1.9 million). The decision-making bodies deal with various contractual and regulatory disputes between football stakeholders. The PSC monitors compliance with the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players and determines the status of players for various FIFA competitions. For its part, the DRC provides arbitration services on the basis of the equal representation of players and clubs. Their combined expenses totalled USD 1.3 million (2020: USD 1.1 million).

FIFA Clearing House-related expenses amounted to USD 2.8 million (2020: USD 2.1 million).

FIFA’s agreement with Sportradar Integrity Services provides a full suite of monitoring, education and intelligence services, including its Fraud Detection System, to identify and prevent match manipulation. Its expenses amounted to USD 2.7 million in 2021 (2020: USD 2.1 million).

The Transfer Matching System is an online system that makes international transfers of players between clubs quicker, smoother and more transparent. In 2021, its expenses amounted to USD 0.2 million (2020: USD 0.2 million).

In 2020, FIFA and world players’ union FIFPRO launched the FIFA Fund for Football Players, which aims to provide financial support to players who have not been paid by their clubs. Its expenses in 2021 amounted to USD 12 million.

The remaining expenses pertain to The IFAB and totalled USD 1.5 million (2020: USD 2.3 million), and general professional football services amounting to USD 0.9 million (2020: USD 0.5 million).

Personnel expenses in Football Governance mainly relate to the FIFA legal and compliance activities, giving advice to the various FIFA divisions and to all internal bodies and committees and is also responsible for the whole of FIFA’s legal portfolio in cases heard before the Court of Arbitration for Sport or ordinary courts. For further details, please refer to Note 31 – Personnel expenses.