LONDON: FIFA should distribute at least $2.1 billion from its financial reserves to its 211 member associations for football development, two senior officials have urged in a letter to Gianni Infantino, the organization’s president.

UEFA’s President Aleksander Ceferin and CONCACAF’s President Victor Montagliani, both FIFA vice presidents, have called for an independent review of FIFA’s finances and proposed that recommendations on releasing funds be submitted to the FIFA Council at its next meeting.

In the letter dated Sept. 18 and seen by Arab News, the officials said FIFA was on course to end the 2023-26 cycle with reserves of about $6 billion — the largest in its history.

Their analysis suggests each member association could receive at least $10 million during the 2027-30 cycle, in addition to funding already committed under the FIFA Forward development program.

They said the proposed distribution would be possible without selling interests in FIFA competitions and without requiring anything in return from member associations.

The officials estimated that FIFA’s reserves would remain above $1.5 billion at every point during the next cycle, even after the proposed payments. They stressed, however, that their calculations were preliminary and called for an independent assessment with access to FIFA’s underlying financial figures and assumptions.

“Development is an institutional responsibility of FIFA — not a matter of individual discretion,” they wrote.

The letter follows the controversy surrounding FIFA Forward Enterprise, a proposal presented to member associations under which outside investors would acquire a share of FIFA competitions to generate additional funding for football development.

Infantino has faced sustained pressure from several confederations and national associations to step down in the wake of the plans being scrapped.

FIFA said on Thursday that a review of the withdrawn FFE proposal would be presented to the world soccer body’s council, ​after criticism from Denmark’s football chief Jesper Moller over the lack of answers regarding the abandoned project.

Ceferin and Montagliani said their analysis raised questions about whether such a transaction was necessary, arguing that FIFA could provide substantially more resources from its existing reserves.

They said they would inform the presidents of the other four confederations in an effort to build support for the proposal.