FIFA’s Mexico spree
FIFA president Gianni Infantino promised during his election campaign to do something about the ridiculous $30million (£20.78m) cost of FIFA Congresses compared to the $1m (£690,000) that UEFA spend on their annual summit.
Yet there are no signs of any curb in FIFA’s ultra-extravagant ways in Mexico City, the first Congress on Infantino’s watch. The FIFA council, rather than stay at the five-star InterContinental hotel from where the FIFA Congress operation is being run, are ensconced at the more expensive Four Seasons, where the best suites cost more than £4,000 a night.
The first priority of delegates from all 209 FIFA countries was to find the FIFA finance office on the first floor of the InterContinental to collect their $1,000-per-person (£690) cash expenses.
A FIFA spokeswoman said the £20.78m figure covered all international meetings for the year.
Meanwhile, Infantino has told FIFA he will honour his election promise to double development funding for every FIFA territory to $5m (£3.5m) over four years.
LOT is resting on a relatively unknown Canadian insurance man Victor Montagliani, who is favourite to be elected tomorrow as the new president of CONCACAF. The last three men in the job, Jack Warner, Jeffrey Webb and Alfredo Hawit, are facing corruption charges — but Canadian Soccer Association chief Montagliani, who has passed strengthened integrity tests, claims he is a clean candidate and has done the rounds of CONCACAF to convince voters that this is the case. He said: ‘We have to get back to normal operations. Losing one president is enough, let alone three.’ FIFA have seen enough resolve to start unfreezing $10m (£6.93m) funding kept back from CONCACAF at the height of their troubles. BBC SPOrT are at least cutting back from the money-no-object expense of a roof-top studio on the Champs-Elysees at the World Cup in 1998. They will present their Euro 2016 coverage from a shared facility with a background of the Eiffel Tower and a fan park. ITV will also be based in Paris, with Notre Dame as their backdrop.