FIFA finally revealed Sepp Blatter’s pay deal on Thursday, which was $3.76 million in 2015 as football’s embattled governing body reported a loss of $122m for a year marred by scandal.
After years of secrecy about presidential earnings, FIFA disclosed its disgraced former leader’s pay package three weeks after his employment officially ended.
Blatter, who was suspended on full pay last October and later banned for unethical conduct, had a base salary of 2,964,379 million Swiss francs ($3m) but received no performance bonus in 2015. The total included a payment of almost $450,000 in “variable compensation” — a long-service entitlement for reaching 40 years employment at FIFA.
FIFA’s loss, its first since 2002, was expected after failing to sign any new World Cup sponsors.
Despite the corruption crisis, FIFA’s total income was $1.152b in 2015. Expenses of $1.274b included spending $61.5m on “legal matters.”
That helped ensure that FIFA’s reserves fund fell by $183m to $1.34b.
FIFA spent $27.9m last year paying executive committee members and senior management, including Blatter. That total was $39.7m in the 2014 World Cup year.
FIFA’s now-fired secretary general, Jerome Valcke, got 2.125m Swiss francs ($2.2m) in 2015. Each executive committee member was paid $300,000, and senior vice president Issa Hayatou of Cameroon got an additional $500,000 for chairing the finance committee. The Swiss attorney general opened a criminal case against Valcke on Thursday.
FIFA agreed to start publishing executive pay in modernising reforms approved last month, as a response to American and Swiss federal investigations of corruption implicating dozens of football officials, including Blatter.
“With the recently approved reforms, I believe that we have turned a corner and that FIFA is poised to emerge stronger than ever,” Gianni Infantino, Blatter’s successor, said in a statement.
FIFA has acknowledged that potential commercial partners were put off by fallout from the scandals.
Top-tier sponsors Sony and Emirates Airlines have not been replaced since the 2014 World Cup, and 27 of 34 commercial slots remain unsold for the 2018 tournament in Russia.
New sponsor deals are likely to be announced soon, with Asian companies expected to step in. FIFA’s prospects improved when member federations passed the anti-corruption reforms last month and elected Swiss lawyer Infantino as president.
FIFA wants to keep Infantino’s pay package secret for one more year until the 2016 accounts are published. His salary will be less than Blatter’s, and should also be less than the yet-to-be appointed secretary general who will have wider, CEO-like decision-making powers in the modernised FIFA structure.
Cuts in staff bonuses from the World Cup appear to be reflected in FIFA’s total wage bill. In 2015, FIFA added 108 employees, for a total of 582, yet “personnel expenses” fell by more than $23 million to $92 million.
FIFA’s legal costs soared in 2015, mostly because it retained American legal firm Quinn Emanuel. Its priority is to help prevent FIFA from being indicted as a co-conspirator in bribery by the U.S. Department of Justice.
FIFA’s spending on “legal matters” was almost double the $31.3m bill for 2014.
FIFA also paid only $3.85m in tax, mainly on profits earned by subsidiary companies. Its tax bill was $36m in 2014 when the annual profit was $140.7m.
The accounts were published minutes after the Court of Arbitration for Sport confirmed that Blatter filed his appeal against a six-year ban from football for financial conflicts of interest. CAS said Blatter seeks to annul the ban.
