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 Especially in Africa, football associations that lacked proper
offices or quality fields for training and games have seen FIFA
projects bring significant improvements.
“In Cape Verde, the football association was sharing a small
three-floor building with other sports federations, there was
nothing,” Jerome Champagne, former director of international
relations for FIFA, told Reuters.
“If you got there now to Cape Verde, FIFA built a headquarters with
offices, in another wing you have dorms so that people attending
courses are able to stay on-site. We convinced the government to
restore the national stadium, we put in an artificial field,” he
added.
Champagne says the improvements have had a direct impact on the
performance of the African country.
Cape Verde had never qualified for the African Cup of Nations but in
2013 they reached the finals for the first time, getting as far as
the last eight. They qualified again in 2015.
“Not only did the facilities help players improve their quality, but
they improve motivation,” he said.
While FIFA’s Goal Program, which has focused on building federation
headquarters and technical centers, has drawn most attention, the
organization has also pumped cash into developing countries through
its Challenger Program, which offers help for grassroots facilities,
and Financial Assistance Program.
The ‘Win-Win’ program looks to improve revenue-generating activities
in countries where the commercial development of the game has not
progressed, while the Solidarity Fund helps victims of natural
disasters.
FIFA’s budget for 2016 projects $220 million in various investments.
In the wake of the corruption scandal, which has seen 14 people
indicted in the United States and led to the suspension of FIFA boss
Sepp Blatter, the talk in the upcoming FIFA presidential election in
February is likely to focus on structural reform.
But the agenda is somewhat different in the developing world.
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“These programs are critical for us. Let’s be honest, without the
FIFA development projects and the Financial Assistance Program, the
small island territories in the Caribbean would be struggling,”
Caribbean Football Union president Gordon Derrick told Reuters.
“These projects, when they are executed properly, are of critical
importance to the development of the sport in our region,” he added.
“They have not always been executed properly, but those that have
been are working exceptionally well.”
In essence FIFA’s projects take the revenue from the World Cup every
four years, generated mostly by commercial deals in advanced
economies, and spend a portion of it helping nations with little
hope of ever making the big stage.
“There is certainly an element of Robin Hood about it,” says
Champagne.
For Derrick there is also a historical aspect.
“They are the developed countries. The truth be told, the majority
of the smaller territories at some point were a colony of one of the
major countries, and they should be trying to assist in getting them
infra structural development,” he said.
(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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