FIFA approves financial, governance report of 2015

The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) suffered a loss of over 100 million U.S.dollars in 2015, according to a financial and governance report approved by the FIFA Executive Committee on Thursday.

The report shows that the FIFA’s revenue in 2015 was 1.152 billion U.S.dollars, while the expenditure mounted to 1.274 billion U.S.dollars, leading to a deficit of 122 million U.S.dollars. This is the first loss since 2002.

Compared with the financial situation in 2011, which was the first phase of a four-year cycle based on the World Cup, the revenue in 2015 increased by 82 million U.S.dollars, but the cost increased by 240 million U.S.dollars. The unexpected corruption scandal led to a lot of extra spending. For example, the organization spent 61.497 million U.S.dollars on legal affairs, twice more than 2014, FIFA explained in the report.

Moreover, the report published the annual salaries of senior executives for the first time. The core management team was paid 27.9 million U.S.dollars in 2015. Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter was paid over 3.7 million U.S.dollars, which is the highest in the core management team. Former FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke received over 2.2 million U.S.dollars, which ranked second.

It was reported on Thursday that Blatter filed an appeal against his six-year global ban from all football-related activities. Valcke was sacked from his position in January this year.