Zimbabwe is set to miss out on about a US$2 million annual injection from FIFA after the FIFA Congress overwhelmingly voted for the country to remain suspended from international football.
The FIFA Congress, which is a meeting of FIFA’s member states, on Thursday endorsed the suspension of Zimbabwe, Kenya and Pakistan during its meeting in Doha, Qatar.
A total of 199 members voted to endorse Zimbabwe’s suspension, after a motion introduced by FIFA president, Gianni Infantino.
Zimbabwe will not only fail to take part in the 2023 AFCON qualifiers, which get underway in June but will also miss out on the annual cash injection from FIFA, which has since been increased by 25 per cent. Said, Infantino:
A 25% increase means that, compared to 2016, when I arrived as FIFA president, each member association will now receive around US$8 million in a four-year period.
This corresponds to seven times more than what was the case before 2016.
A sevenfold increase of money goes where it has to go: into solidarity projects, football development projects.
This US$2.2 billion will go straight to the member associations’ development programmes.