Zurich: FIFA estimates the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the football economy will be in the region of $14 billion USD.
That figure accounts for around a third of the game's global economic value with the club and national game worth around $46 billion USD worldwide.
When asked about FIFA attempting to balance the economies of the game and health of safety during the pandemic, Olli Rehn, Chairman of FIFA's Covid-19 Relief Plan Steering Committee said, "FIFA is following and practising a very clear policy on this - health first, safety first - and that's how it should be in my view. At the same time, we are now seeing that we can gradually return to more normal conditions. In many countries, the leagues have started without audiences (fans) are with very limited audiences. We are gradually returning to more normal conditions."
"We have to do this safely, returning to normal. On the other hand, we have learnt a lot over the past half-year and whilst in the beginning, there was a complete lockdown in many countries, most countries in the world. Now the measures, as we maybe head to a second wave, are more targeted and many countries have better emergency care and health care systems. Now the challenge for society, in general, and for the football community, is to combine safety and health with the sensible and gradual reopening."
In response, FIFA has committed $1.5 billion USD total in a bid to provide some financial relief.
Olli Rehn, who leads the relief fund steering committee, outlined the financial aid available to member associations and confederations on Wednesday.
"The football economy has been hit very hard by the corona pandemic. It's hit clubs, players, staff, young players, youth academies, so on and so forth. Our estimate is that the overall football economy is on the scale of $40 billion US dollars, the hit is about one-third of this. With this FIFA Covid-19 relief fund we want to support the football economy, the clubs, member associations, youth academies, to overcome the worst period of this crisis. That's why FIFA has allocated up to $1.5 billion US dollars for this purpose, to support football in this difficult time," he added.
Each of FIFA's 211 members are eligible to apply for a grant of $1 million USD each whilst confederations can claim $2 million USD.
There is also extra money available specifically for women's football.
Rehn also gave assurances that FIFA would set up compliance structures to ensure money was used as intended by its members.
"We've set up an auditing and compliance structure which ensures this funding will be audited twice. We want to ensure with this compliance mechanism that no misuse funds will happen and all the best practices of good governance are being followed," he said.
