On Friday, the World football governing body, FIFA, announced that in the coming days, a $500,000 financial package will be given to the Ghana Football Association (GFA) plus any entitlement under the FIFA development programme amid the Coronavirus outbreak.
As one of the member associations to have been badly affected by the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus, the GFA will receive the financial support from FIFA to cushion their activities.
The president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, described it as the “first step” in a wider plan to assist those struggling due to the Coronavirus outbreak.
“The pandemic has caused unprecedented challenges for the entire football community and, as the world governing body, it is Fifa’s duty to be there and support the ones that are facing acute needs,” the president of FIFA said.
“This starts by providing immediate financial assistance to our member associations, many of which are experiencing severe financial distress. This is the first step of a far-reaching financial relief plan we are developing to respond to the emergency across the whole football community.”
“I would like to thank the chairpersons of the FIFA Development Committee, Shaikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, and the FIFA Finance Committee, Alejandro Domínguez, for their commitment and urgent approval of these measures by their committees.”
All remaining entitlements of member associations to operational costs under the Forward 2.0 Programme will be released, as part of the measure, in full for the years 2019 and 2020.
In particular, the release of the second instalment of operational costs for 2020, which was originally due in July, will be paid immediately.
FIFA’s member associations, under normal circumstances, would have only received the full amount of the contribution upon fulfillment of specific criteria.
Instead, FIFA is now transferring this amount as an active support to help safeguard football across all member associations.
This means that FIFA will release USD 500,000 to each member association in the coming days as well as any remaining entitlement for 2019 and 2020.
