8 | Development & Education

In 2022, expenditure relating to FIFA Forward for member associations, zonal/regional associations and confederations, travel and equipment and other football associations as well as for the FIFA Football Development Fund totalled USD 605.2 million. This amount also includes the remaining available funds from the FIFA Forward Programme for the 2019-2022 cycle (Forward 2.0), which were fully recognised at the end of the cycle. Total expenditure for the 2019-2022 cycle amounted to USD 1,746 million and the total investment since the launch of the Forward programme in 2016 amounted to USD 2,824.6 million.

Further details on the funds released under the Forward Programme are contained in Note 24 – Accrued expenses and deferred income and in the Annexe to this report.

FIFA Forward project costs member associations

Under Forward 2.0, each of the 211 member associations was entitled to receive up to USD 2 million for projects in the 2019-2022 cycle. During this period, FIFA supported its member associations with development projects in the areas of football infrastructure, capacity building, competitions, national teams and subsidies, as well as other projects such as contributions for training and maintenance equipment, IT and new media, and merchandising and marketing activities. The total costs for this category of USD 258.4 million in 2022 (2021: USD 46.8 million) include the recognition of the remaining available funds under Forward 2.0, which will be transferred to the FIFA Football Development Fund if they are not approved for use by 31 December 2024.

FIFA Forward operational costs member associations

Each member association is entitled to up to USD 1 million per year for operating costs under Forward 2.0. The purpose of this operational funding is, on the one hand, to finance ongoing activities, administration and general operating costs, and on the other hand, to involve member associations in the active design and implementation of national men’s, women’s and youth competitions.

FIFA Forward confederations

The six confederations recognised by FIFA are each entitled to USD 12 million per year, representing a total annual investment of USD 72 million. These funds support the confederations in their efforts to promote the interests of football and contribute to the development of football worldwide.

FIFA Forward travel and equipment

Under the Forward 2.0 regulations, member associations could receive up to USD 0.2 million per year for travel and accommodation and up to USD 0.2 million for equipment in the 2019-2022 cycle. These funds are earmarked for member associations that are most in need of support and whose annual revenue does not exceed USD 4 million, so that they can organise travel for the national team and purchase football equipment that they could not otherwise afford. In 2022, 110 member associations met the eligibility criteria for funding, resulting in a total expenditure of USD 22 million (2021: USD 31.6 million).

FIFA Forward zonal/regional associations

The 13 zonal/regional associations (recognised by the respective confederation) are entitled to up to USD 1 million per year to cover the costs of organising regional youth competitions for girls and boys.

FIFA Forward other football associations

Other football associations benefiting from the FIFA Forward Programme are overseas territories that are not FIFA member associations but are members of a confederation recognised by FIFA. Under this initiative, USD 1.8 million was spent in 2022 (2021: USD 1.2 million).

Football Development Fund

The establishment of a specific Football Development Fund will ensure that the total amount of funds earmarked by FIFA under the Forward Programme for football development remains available. In 2022, the available Forward funds in the “Other football associations” and “Travel and equipment” categories that had not been approved were transferred to the Football Development Fund to support the beneficiaries of Forward 3.0 in the amount of USD 27 million.

FIFA Talent Development Scheme

Following an extensive analysis, the Talent Development Scheme (TDS) was launched under the leadership of Arsène Wenger as part of the High Performance Programme in 2022. This includes a kick-off fund of USD 9.6 million as well as an implementation funding allocation of USD 200 million to help member associations reach their full potential and deliver tailor- made long-term talent development programmes. The funds must be invested in programmes for talent identification, academies, national youth teams, elite coaching or games. Expenditure for the kick-off and implementation funds are shown under this line item, while operational costs in connection with the TDS are included under “Technical development programmes”.

Digital development services

In 2022, FIFA+ was launched, the new, digital destination for football fans. The direct-to-consumer platform, available as an app or on the web, houses an archive of all men’s and women’s FIFA World Cup™ matches, thousands of live fixtures every year, interactive games and predictors, as well as original documentaries, docuseries, talk shows, and shorts. FIFA+ aims to make football accessible to everyone, providing a platform allowing all 211 member associations to produce and make their content, leagues and matches available to an international audience in a way that they would not be able to do otherwise.

The line item “Digital development services” includes the costs for FIFA+, content creation and the update of related platforms and features and amounts to USD 36 million. The remaining expenses relate to customer experience management totalling USD 13.7 million and the general development of digital products amounting to USD 2.9 million in 2022.

Other projects

Expenditure on other projects covers the day-to-day operational and support activities of the Member Associations Division, which continues to work with FIFA’s members to integrate good-governance practices based on ethics, risk management, compliance and administration. Collaborating with its network of regional offices has widened the organisation’s reach of its engagement around the globe and strengthened its support of member associations. Technical solutions are also offered to promote good-governance practices, including dedicated tools and platforms such as the FIFA Connect programme, which provides members with the transparency and control they need over their football landscape where information is concerned. In addition, FIFA’s Football Executive Programme, run in cooperation with the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES), provides member associations with key management tools.

Expenditure for the Regional Development Offices was
USD 2.2 million (2021: USD 1.1 million), for the FIFA Connect Programme USD 1.9 million (2021: USD 1.3 million), and for other general expenditure (including programmes from previous years) USD 39.6 million, of which USD 16 million related to the FIFA Executive Summit in Doha (2021: USD 13.8 million).

Technical development programmes

The aim of the technical development programmes is to improve the technical side of the game and to ensure that talented players all over the world have the chance to reach their full potential.

In 2022, the FIFA Training Centre, which acts as an online academy featuring training sessions and in depth analyses to educate coaches and players at every level, became fully operational. To help its members’ develop talented players, FIFA continued to provide educational programmes via dedicated mentors, regional technical consultants, high-performance specialists as well as coach educators.

Expenses for educational campaigns and workshops including those for the new online FIFA Training Centre amounted to USD 5.9 million (2021: USD 3.4 million). Analysis, consultancy and technical service expenses also include operational costs in connection with the Talent Development Scheme and totalled USD 11 million (2021: USD 7.3 million). Other development programme expenses, such as for grassroots and youth development initiatives, amounted to USD 2.9 million (2021: USD 1.4 million).

Refereeing

In 2022, the FIFA Refereeing Subdivision continued to implement the decisions taken by the FIFA Referees Committee relating to refereeing matters worldwide. It successfully prepared and managed all FIFA match officials and refereeing delegations for all FIFA competitions as well as for some non-FIFA international flagship events. Activities in 2022 focused, as before, on the continuous improvement of the quality of match officials and instructors (including video assistant referees (VARs)) in all confederations and member associations. By the end of 2022, more than 350 various courses had been conducted.

Moreover, the Refereeing Subdivision continued to assist the member associations in developing the VAR system by increasing the number of countries using it to 53, with a further 12 associations in the process of implementing it at reporting date.

Refereeing project expenses for FIFA World Cups amounted to USD 4.9 million in 2022 (2021: USD 1.1 million). General development and equipment expenses, which mainly refer to event-related preparation work, equipment and implementation costs such as for the VAR system, totalled USD 4.5 million (2021: USD 3.1 million).

Women’s football promotion

FIFA’s commitment to the women’s game is underpinned by its Women’s Football Strategy, which sets out three key objectives and five pillars that chart the course for how FIFA intends to work with confederations, member associations, clubs, players, the media, fans and other stakeholders to realise the full potential that exists within the women’s game. In line with that strategy, the FIFA Women’s Development Programme was launched in 2021 to provide all 211 member associations with the opportunity to access additional resources and specialist expertise to develop women’s football at national level. The implementation of the programme progressed well in 2022, further strengthening the foundations of the game globally.

Member associations worked on their long-term strategies for the women’s game, reactivating women’s football competitions and development activities following the COVID-19 restrictions and achieving excellent results in terms of increased participation in and awareness of women ́s football around the world. FIFA also delivered the highly popular Women in Football Leadership Programme as well as the second edition of the very successful Coach Mentorship Programme.

Working hand in hand with our stakeholders, the FIFA Guide to Club Licensing in Women’s Football was published along with the second edition of the FIFA Benchmarking Report: Setting the Pace, both aimed at supporting member associations, leagues and clubs in accelerating the professionalisation of the women’s game.

In 2022, support services for stakeholders in women’s football promotion amounted to USD 8.4 million (2021: USD 3.3 million).

Sustainability, human rights and safeguarding

FIFA’s human rights work continued to focus on addressing salient risks to people in line with FIFA’s statutory human rights commitment and Human Rights Policy in the areas of FIFA competitions, players’ rights and relationships with member associations (e.g. labour, anti- discrimination and press freedom). Another priority of FIFA’s human rights work in 2022 was the support of a group of approximately 150 Afghan sports people and human rights defenders who FIFA had helped to evacuate in late 2021, including in relation to their stay in Albania and permanent relocation to a new country.

Numerous sustainability initiatives were implemented and revolved around sustainable buildings (including operations), the reduction and offsetting of greenhouse gas emissions (to achieve carbon neutrality), air quality (to understand pollution sources and mitigate them), waste minimisation (to ensure proper waste segregation, sorting and recycling), and water conservation (to reduce consumption of this precious resource and reuse it whenever possible). FIFA, together with its local partners, also produced numerous training materials and sessions that allowed for more than 74,000 individuals (workforce, volunteers and contractors) to receive sustainability-related training, raise their awareness and improve operations. The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ was also the focus of attention with the launch of the event’s sustainability strategy.

FIFA further invested in promoting safe sport and raising safeguarding standards in football to ensure the safety and well-being of everyone across the game, especially children.

Expenses for sustainability and human rights activities amounted to USD 1.6 million (2021: USD 0.4 million) and costs for accommodation and other external services relating to the Afghan Future Fund amounted to USD 4.8 million.

Anti-discrimination activities resulted in expenses of USD 0.4 million (2021: USD 0.3 million), while activities relating to safeguarding and child protection totalled 0.8 million (2021: USD 0.5 million).

FIFA Foundation

The FIFA Foundation’s activities focus on impacting society through the power of football and empowering children and young people to realise their full potential, whilst addressing the most pressing global challenges, thus making a tangible contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

In 2022, the expenses of the FIFA Foundation amounted to USD 5.6 million (2021: USD 4.8 million).

Education

FIFA provides annual financial support to CIES, which is based in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. CIES is a leading institution with an ever-expanding offering of educational programmes for the development of new football administrators and management education of athletes and sport executives, and it also serves as a reference point for research and consulting services provided to a wide range of sport stakeholders.

FIFA’s contributions to CIES amounted to USD 4.7 million in 2022 (2021: USD 4.8 million). The figure includes the FIFA Master along with several post-graduate worldwide programmes, including scholarships for deserving students.

Audit and financial education

FIFA appoints globally recognised audit and assurance firms, which perform independent reviews on a member association’s processes and compliance with regulations. Every year, a central audit review is conducted for each member association that has received funds under the Forward Programme. In addition, FIFA provides capacity development assistance to support FIFA’s member associations in identifying areas that require improvement.

In 2022, expenses for audit and financial education amounted to
USD 3.3 million (2021: USD 2.9 million).

Medicine and science

FIFA strives to protect the health and wellbeing of players globally. The FIFA Medical Subdivision has increasingly leveraged the knowledge and experience of carefully selected international experts to ensure that all projects and services are underpinned by current scientific evidence. FIFA seeks to ensure that football can be played on a level playing field by everyone by setting an example through its anti-doping programme, thus preserving the ethics of the game.

Key focus areas in 2022 included the definition of processes and medical services training both inside and outside stadiums, the development of a new post-graduate masters course in football medicine, the production of FIFA medical emergency bags sent to all member associations, and the establishment of a medical governance framework for the 49 FIFA medical centres of excellence around the world as well as investment in various medical-related scientific projects, such as the BrainHOPE initiative.

In 2022, FIFA’s anti-doping expenditure was USD 0.4 million (2021: USD 0.5 million) and its medical expenditure was USD 1.5 million (2021: USD 0.7 million).

FIFA Museum

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic having subsided in 2022, the museum was able to significantly increase its number of visitors in 2022, welcoming 195,000 football fans from more than 135 different countries. A new special exhibition entitled “211 Cultures. One Game” opened in Zurich to shine a light on FIFA’s 211 member associations and the unique football culture of each one. A new collaboration with the Zurich Film Festival was launched to bring football to the cinema as part of a globally focused cultural programme. As the final highlight of the year, the museum welcomed more than 175,000 visitors from all around the world to its special “Goals Create History” exhibition at the FIFA Fan Festival™ in Doha during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™.

In 2022, the FIFA Museum’s operational costs as stated in the line item amounted to USD 6.2 million (2021: USD 4.7 million).

World Football Remission Fund

In 2021, the US Department of Justice granted FIFA USD 60.4 million in remission proceeds, representing monies forfeited by defendants to the US government that are returned to victims of their criminal schemes. These funds are administered by the FIFA Foundation and, together with CONMEBOL’s and Concacaf’s shares of the World Football Remission Fund, amount to a total award of over USD 201 million. These proceeds will be invested in line with the terms of the fund, with a particular focus on youth and community programmes. FIFA therefore reserved corresponding development expenses of USD 60.4 million in 2021.

Personnel expenses

Supported by advanced tools and platforms that enable multiple teams to work remotely with great efficiency, FIFA has an agile, mobile and productive workforce that enables secure collaboration between its employees and stakeholders. In the 2022 World Cup year, FIFA staff were able to seamlessly move between work location, venue and accommodation, while maintaining productivity and support activities at a high level. By successfully connecting the traditional and digital parts of its development business, FIFA was able to be more responsive to stakeholder needs.

In 2022, personnel expenses amounted to USD 43.6 million (2021: USD 41.1 million). For further details, please refer to Note 31 – Personnel expenses.

Depreciation of property and equipment

Depreciation expenses for operational buildings, offices and other equipment as well as right-of-use assets totalled USD 16.7 million for 2022 (2021: USD 22.3 million). FIFA did not identify any indicators for impairment in 2022.