Alhaji Righteous De Ambitious: World Cup 2006 Blog

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

World Cup 2006 Blog

Link to World Cup Soccer - South Africa 2010

Sepp Blatter’s Magical Money Making Machine

Posted: 23 Mar 2009 03:40 PM PDT

If you’ve been reading the real world non-football news (and I don’t recommend it right now) then you’ll know there’s a whole world of economic bleakness out there. But in FIFA-land? All is sunshine, lollipops and big profits.

FIFA announced their 2008 figures on Friday, and… ker-ching! Revenues are up and profits are good. Sepp Blatter and friends took in $957 million in 2008 (compared to $882m in 2007) and spent just $773m (compared to $883m in 2007) for a total profit of $184m.

And while most financial institutions were either wobbling or collapsing at the end of last year, FIFA even did some smart financial stuff that I don’t quite understand:

“FIFA even made a profit of $16 million in managing its assets last year. Its equity stands at $902 million, boosted by a successful policy of hedging foreign currency.”

(Does that mean they dropped foreign currency in a hedge, and then came back a year later to find it was still there, and worth more than when they left it?)

In a way, it’s good news that FIFA is doing well. Because if the governing body goes under, that would spell trouble for the beautiful game.

But seeing FIFA - which is supposed to be a governing/administrative body and not a for-profit business - make out so well in 2008 while everyone else struggled is pretty remarkable.

It basically underlines the idea/fact that FIFA is now a corporate monolith that makes a fortune selling TV licensing, merchandise and sponsorship. The estimated revenue for World Cup 2010 is apparently $3.2 billion. Imagine how many AIG retention bonuses you could pay with that?