FIFA, soccer’s world governing body recently announced its intent to distribute a total of $11 million, $1 million each to the 11 cities hosting this summer’s FIFA Club World Cup.
The gift primarily is to promote sustainability in the sport and will be awarded to cities to help promote soccer infrastructure efforts in addition to an infusion to promote youth soccer in those host cities.
The initial gift and the oversight of sustainability efforts, will come from a division of FIFA’s foundation, coming to the United States and being set up later this year.
“We care about our social role, which is why we are in the process of establishing the FIFA Foundation USA,” Infantino said via press release. The announcement came shortly after his appearance at a fan event in Philadelphia on Thursday morning in which he showcased the gold-blazoned FIFA Club World Cup trophy.
“Also, for the legacy of the FIFA Club World Cup in the United States, we will contribute [$1 million U.S. dollars] to each of the 11 cities that will host matches to support local social projects. This means ideally installing mini pitches and organising soccer activities with children on these pitches in areas where they are most needed in each city, something that will ensure that the impact of this groundbreaking global tournament will be felt for years to come.”
The major announcement arrived as FIFA continues what has been a nationwide tour in each of the 11 cities to drum up excitement for the Club World Cup, which is still slowly drawing appeal with major fans. While there’s an expanded 32 teams in this year’s iteration of the tournament, only a handful of teams taking part are household names.
However, all of this early travel for FIFA’s delegation is the foresight on what economists say could be a financial windfall of close to $10 billion in the United States, and $21.1 billion in gross domestic product worldwide.
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It’s a tournament that experts say will create close to 105,000 seasonal jobs over the xxx weeks of the tournament, running from June 14 to July 13.
However, a closer examination of this $1 million gift does have potentially positive fallouts for soccer’s governing body. It could be viewed as a $1 million investment that keeps FIFA at the top of mind ahead of next year’s massive men’s World Cup — especially with a large percentage of those games here in the United States.
Infantino’s comments didn’t make it seem as if he or soccer’s governing body would disagree.
“This is a symbol and a sign that we want to do something for the community because one of the things that strikes me here in North America, and this has to change, is that there are not enough facilities to play soccer in the right environment,” he added. “So, to give something, to contribute in building something … that is most needed is something that we have to do. It is our responsibility and I hope that many will follow us in this.”