Corruption scandal pushes FIFA to $122 mln loss for 2015

Corruption scandal pushes FIFA to $122 mln loss for 2015
By Euronews with REUTERS
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With corruption related legal costs mounting and sponsors bailing out FIFA has announced it suffered big losses in 2015.

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With corruption related legal costs mounting and sponsors bailing out FIFA has announced big losses last year – $122 million (108 million euros).

International football’s governing body has also revealed the huge salaries paid to top officials, several dozen of whom are now accused of criminal activity, including former members of FIFA’s executive committee.

Swiss investigative journalist Jean-François Tanda, who follows FIFA, explained: “This loss reflects its much higher costs last year. The amount it had to pay in legal bills doubled from 2014, and at the same time sponsors weren’t putting money in. FIFA couldn’t get any new sponsors, and those things combined led to this big loss.”

As FIFA’s governance regulations changed we learned for the first time what disgraced former FIFA president Sepp Blatter paid.

Last year – just until October when he was banned – Blatter made 3.63 million Swiss francs (3.32 million euros).

Blatter’s replacement, Gianni Infantino, whose salary has not been revealed, has said FIFA will now increase spending on football development worldwide.

Despite the troubles, FIFA said it had revised its projected revenue for the 2015-2018 cycle upwards from $5 billion (4.43 billion euros) to $5.65 billion (5.0 billion euros), with projected investments amounting to $5.55 billion (4.9 billion euros).

Revenue from World Cup sponsors dropped from $131 million to $44.5 million (39.5 million euros) in 2015 after contracts with Johnson & Johnson, Castrol and Continental expired at the end of 2014.

However, revenue from FIFA’s top tier sponsorship partners increased from $177.1 million to $180 million (160 million euros).

Despite the troubles, FIFA said it had revised its projected revenue for the 2015-2018 cycle upwards from $5 billion to $5.65 billion, with projected investments amounting to $5.55 billion.

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