The Sport Review: “Fifa’s financial stability aided by highly lucrative World Cup” plus 2 more

Fifa’s financial stability aided by highly lucrative World Cup
Bernie Ecclestone willing to give Bahrain more time
Harry Redknapp considering Carvalho Amauri swoop

Fifa’s financial stability aided by highly lucrative World Cup

Posted: 28 Apr 2011 12:13 PM PDT

fifa world cup 2010

He could well be approaching the end of his 13-year reign as Fifa president, but Sepp Blatter still has plenty to smile about.

Soaring revenues and ever-growing multi-million pound reserves have left football's governing body in a more-than-healthy financial position ahead of June's presidential election between the incumbent Blatter and Mohamed Bin Hammam.

Thanks largely to the highly lucrative 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Fifa has revealed a record surplus of $631m (£379m) for the four years from 2007 to 2011.

Total revenue generated from 2007-2010 topped $4bn (£2.4m), an increase of 59 per cent from the previous four-year period which included the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

The World Cup, aside from being Fifa's flagship tournament, virtually props up the Zurich-based organisation single-handedly, with the latest competition generating almost 90 per cent of its total revenue.

“Football has continued to grow in popularity,” said Blatter. “The World Cup remains the biggest attraction for fans and I am delighted to present this successful financial result.”

The 2010 financial report, released in March, also disclosed that Fifa's salary invoice for the year swelled to $65m (£39m), paid to its 387 employees with an average of $168,700 (£101,328).

Of the $3.7bn (£2.2m) revenue generated by last year's World Cup, $2.4bn (£1.4bn) was income from the sale of television rights, with other marketing rights accounting for just over $1bn (£600m).

One of the overriding reasons behind the high level of revenue from last summer’s tournament is that Fifa paid no tax on 2010 World Cup earnings due to exemption agreements with the South African government.

But while clearly outlining a highly successful four years, this latest set of figures also highlight Fifa's enormous reliance on the World Cup.

"Fifa is financially strong," said director of finance Markus Kattner. "But [the figures] illustrate the necessity to build up reserves to decrease its dependency on the World Cup."

Lucky for Kattner then, that Fifa's reserves are looking pretty healthy. This year they topped $1.2bn (£721m), having skyrocketed from just $76m (£45m) in 2003.

Development of Fifa reserves in $m

“The ﬁnancial success of the last few years and the regular increase in Fifa’s reserves have resulted in Fifa becoming even more ﬁnancially independent,” said Dr Franco Carraro, chairman of Fifa’s internal audit committee.

“In contrast to the previous four-year period, Fifa did not need to borrow any money at all during the period that has just ended.”

Fifa says its reserves are required to preserve its future major duties. In the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States, Fifa's insurance against cancellation of the 2002 World Cup was terminated in the build-up to the tournament, and the governing body has been gradually topping up its reserves as a precaution ever since.

But with them now corresponding to around one third of its total costs for the latest four-year period, they have been to be deemed sufficient.

As a result, a far smaller amount will be added over the next four-year cycle as Fifa promises to invest “even more of its revenue in football”.

Developing football

According to Fifa, “the main beneficiary of this financial success will be football itself. The great the funds available, the better Fifa can help protect and develop the game.”

Fifa has pumped $794m (£477m) into “football development” during the last four-year period – 57 times more than amount during the cycle before Blatter landed the top job.

The Goal development programme, one of schemes introduced by Blatter after he was elected in 1998, has paid out cash to most of Fifa’s 208 members during his reign.

The programme has overseen the completion of over 500 projects worldwide since its inception, and the governing body is set on further promoting football over the next four years.

And the current Fifa president insists that “playing its part in building a better future through football” is one of his organisation’s key objectives.

We will have to wait until 1 June, however, to discover if Blatter will remain in charge to oversee the next four years of the sport’s global development.

Bernie Ecclestone willing to give Bahrain more time

Posted: 28 Apr 2011 06:48 AM PDT

bahrain grand prix

Bahrain could be given more time to decide whether it can host its postponed grand prix later later this season, Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has revealed.

Organisers had been given a 1 May deadline from the sport's governing body, the FIA, to decide whether the race could be rescheduled, but with the country still embroiled in civil unrest, an extension is expected to be granted beyond the end of this week.

"We need to wait a little bit to see exactly how progress is made," Ecclestone told Reuters. "I suppose we'd be safe by early June or something like that.

“Things can change in a couple of weeks, so you don't know. All of a sudden everything might be peaceful in a month's time and they are happy to run the event and so we are happy to be there."

The race at Sakhir, which was due to open the 2011 season on 13 March, was postponed amid violent anti-government protests in the Gulf kingdom, with activists threatening to use the race to highlight their cause against the Sunni royal family.

Last Friday, an open letter to Ecclestone appeared on social networking website Facebook asking the 80-year-old "to consider the challenges to organise what should be a happy sporting event in the middle of a country under siege and martial law, surrounded by tanks and military forces, while the population is being reduce to silence, killed, tortured, ect [sic]…."

The letter also asked Ecclestone to "reconsider hosting Grand Prix of Bahrain until basic human rights and freedom are restored, and, if you wish, to issue a letter stating that the Grand Prix cannot, and will not, be organized in Bahrain until basic human rights and freedom are restored, and the repression is over."

Earlier this month, organisers were still hopeful of hosting a race in 2011 with a date in November between the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and end-of-season Brazilian Grand Prix being mooted as the most likely option.

"We are in constant contact with concerned authorities to reschedule the Bahrain Grand Prix 2011," said Bahrain International Circuit chief Sheik Salman bin Isa al-Khalifa.

"Now that security has prevailed and normal life has returned to Bahrain, we are stepping up contacts to host the race anew."

Harry Redknapp considering Carvalho Amauri swoop

Posted: 28 Apr 2011 06:17 AM PDT

amauri

Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp is considering a summer swoop for Italy striker Carvalho Amauri, according to the player's agent.

Amauri, 30, is currently on loan to Parma from Juventus and is due to return to the Turin side at the end of the season.

However, the Brazil native is expected to leave Juve in the summer and agent Ernesto Bronzetti has revealed that Spurs boss Redknapp has expressed an interest in signing the forward, who has netted seven goals for Parma this term, as he looks to strengthen his attacking line-up.

“There are several clubs interested,” Bronzetti told Tuttosport. “There are at least eight bids for him – from England where I can reveal Tottenham [are interested], but also from Spain and Germany.”

Bronzetti added: “In Italy there are two clubs on him, one in Rome [Lazio or Roma] and one in Milan [AC or Inter Milan] but I cannot say which.”

Amauri struggled to make an impact at Juventus despite a positive first season in Turin, but the former Chievo forward has enjoyed a return to form at Parma, where he has been playing alongside veteran striker Hernán Crespo.

“In Parma, Amauri is proving his worth. He is a champion who has found serenity,” continued Bronzetti. “At the end of the season he will decide his next team along with Juventus.”