FIFA release statement denying second Gianni Infantino salary amid reports

Sky Sports News

FIFA denies a second Infantino salary, but correspondent says statement does not deny the extra payment

The segment covers FIFA's statement denying a second salary for Gianni Infantino. The correspondent argues the wording only denies a second salary, not the $1.7m payment shown in US tax filings, and predicts an uncomfortable FIFA Council meeting and a likely fourth term unless a serious challenger emerges; he doubts Ramon Vega can get the required five associations.

► Subscribe to Sky Sports News: http://bit.ly/SkySportsNewsSub ► Watch Sky Sports with NOW: https://bit.ly/NOWSkySportsYT Kaveh Solhekol discusses FIFA's statement insisting president Gianni Infantino does not receive a second salary. skysports football fifa ► For the latest developments on this story: https://qrcode.skysports.com/skysports/topstories ► For the latest transfer news: https://qrcode.skysports.com/skysports/TransferCentre More from Sky Sports on YouTube: ► Sky Sports: http://bit.ly/SkySportsSub ► Sky Sports Boxing: http://bit.ly/SSBoxingSub ► Sky Sports Cricket: http://bit.ly/SubscribeSkyCricket ► Sky Sports Darts: https://bit.ly/SubSkySportsDarts ► Sky Sports Football: http://bit.ly/SSFootballSub ► Sky Sports F1: http://bit.ly/SubscribeSkyF1 ► Sky Sports Golf: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsGolf ► Sky Sports Premier League: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsPL ► Sky Sports Retro: http://bit.ly/SkySportsRetroSub ► Sky Sports WSL: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsWSL ► TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skysportsnews ► X: https://x.com/SkySportsNews ► Website: https://www.skysports.com ► To enquire about licensing Sky Sports content, you can find out more here: https://www.skysports.com/more-sports/news/31754/11434270/license-sky-sports-footage

Transcript

Meanwhile, FIFA President Jany Infant is under more pressure to resign after it was revealed he received an undeclared second salary worth 1.3 million pounds in 2024. Our chief correspondent Carver is here with a little bit of an update on it. Um, okay. You've heard from FIFA on the matter. What have they had to say about it? >> Yeah, we've had two statements from FIFA today. The second one uh makes it very very clear from them that uh FIFA does not pay their president a second salary. But of course I have um read a lot of statements in my 20 years in football journalism and reading between the lines in this statement it makes it clear that Infantino doesn't get a second salary but nowhere in the statement does it say that he didn't get this extra 1.3 million. Uh the statement in full says FIFA does not pay a second salary to the FIFA president and complies with all reporting requirements in relation to compensation. The FIFA president's annual compensation as well as other contractual benefits are decided by the independent compensation subcommittee. FIFA strongly rejects any claims that it has failed to disclose any financial information and has violated FIFA statutes. FIFA accounts are independently audited and all declarations are in line with tax regulations in Switzerland, the United States, and elsewhere. FIFA is fully focused on the FIFA Council meeting on Thursday and looks forward to discussions with its members to further grow the game following the most successful FIFA World Cup in history. So that statement, FIFA is saying Johnny Infantino doesn't get a second salary. But nowhere in that statement that I just read a FIFA saying he didn't get this extra 1.3 uh million pounds or 1.7 million pounds in dollars in 2024. >> So did he get it or not then? Basically I I I'm a little bit confused about the statement. Well, according to the US tax man, uh, US Internal Revenue Service, >> yes, >> in 2024, he was paid $1.7 million by a company called FWC 2026. Now, that is the company that was set up to run and organize uh this summer's World Cup in North America. So the reporting so far has been that Infantino had an undeclared second salary. And what FIFA are saying this afternoon is we strongly refute that he had a second salary. But they're not saying we strongly refute that he didn't get the 1.7 uh million that show up in US tax filings. So, what was the payment then? If it's not a second salary, then >> I mean I mean we could be getting into the realms of semantics, you know. >> Okay. >> I'm not an expert on being paid an extra $1.7 million. >> No, neither am I. [laughter] >> Every year, but I think >> it could be it could be a bonus. I I I don't know. It could be expenses. It could be But FIFA are making it very very clear. They want us to make it clear. Yes. They do not pay a second salary to the FIFA president and they strongly reject any claims that it has failed to disclose financial information and has violated FIFA statutes. What they're saying there is that FIFA statutes make it clear that in the interests of good governance and transparency, the president's salary has to be published right >> in FIFA's accounts every year. And that salary is published. It is just under4 million pounds a year. I think3.88 million pounds a year in Swiss Franks of course. But that is what FIFA are saying. I don't know. Maybe they'll release another statement today uh saying that Infantino didn't get that payment which they're disputing. They're saying it wasn't a salary. >> Right. Okay. So, we await that statement. Um they do mention the Congress meeting on Thursday. That might prove to be quite an interesting meeting. >> Yeah, look, it's the first FIFA Council meeting since um it emerged that Johnny Infantino had cooked up this secret plan uh to sell off a stake in all FIFA tournaments, including the World Cup. And he did it behind the back of the FIFA Council. Now, the FIFA Council are Johnny Infantino and 36 of the most powerful people in world football. They're effectively the FIFA board. So, everything the president does should be done uh with the FIFA council. They should be on board. But obviously, he went and did this without telling them. And this is the first time they've had a chance to sit down face to face with him and tell him exactly what they think of what he did over the summer. Of course, there's lots of other things they want to discuss with him. For instance, his very very controversial and some would say bizarre decision uh to give President Trump the um brand new FIFA Peace Prize uh whatever that is back in December in Washington. I'm sure that will be on the agenda. Lots of other controversial issues, scandals that they will want to speak to him about. So, I think it's going to be an uncomfortable meeting for Giani Infantino, but I still think that he's going to carry on being the FIFA president unless in the next few weeks somebody emerges as a real challenger. Somebody emerges and says, "I'm going to take Johnny Infantino on. Enough is enough. We can't have him being the FIFA president until 2031, and that is why I'm going to declare myself as a candidate to take him on." They need to do that by the 18th of November. If a serious candidate doesn't emerge, then Johnny Infantino will win a fourth term to be FIFA president next March in Morocco. >> And and we just very briefly, Raymond Vega was that kind of happening order. >> Look, Raymond Vega is, you know, obviously he was a great player for Tottenham and Switzerland and I think he's tried to run before, but for instance, if you or I wanted to run to be FIFA president, we could do. I'm quite happy to do that with you. I mean a dual leadership. >> Yeah. Joint joint ticket. What what you need is you need evidence of the fact that you've worked in football I think for the past five years. We both have. >> We have. >> So we tick that. >> We're taking boxes. Great. Keep going. >> But the problem we would have is >> the joint Vicki and Carve ticket is we would need the backing of five football associations from around the world. So there's 211. If you think that me and you can get the backing of five, okay, then we could declare ourselves to be candidates. And I think that's going to be the problem for Ramon Vega because I don't think he's going to get the backing of five uh football associations. >> You work on two, I'll work on three. [laughter] Okay. Thank you, Car as always. [gasps] G.