COURTESY FIFA.com: Doha/Qatar – The FIFA Extraordinary Congress, meeting today in Doha (Qatar) under the chairmanship of President Joseph S. Blatter, gave unanimous approval to FIFA’s financial results for the 1999-2002 period.
The delegates accepted by acclamation the consolidated financial statements for the 1999-2002 period including the consolidated balance sheet as of 31 December 2002 and the income statements for 1999-2002 together with the notes to the consolidated financial statements.
The Congress was also entirely satisfied with reports from FIFA’s auditors and the Internal Audit Committee, which had been set up as a direct result of a decision made at the 2002 FIFA Congress in Seoul.
The chairman of the FIFA Finance Committee, Julio Grondona, shed light on FIFA’s finances with an extensive report, detailing the world governing body’s achievements in this area. He commended the FIFA President for his crisis management in 2001 and 2002 when FIFA’s marketing and television partners both filed for insolvency.
FIFA General Secretary Dr. Urs Linsi offered a detailed review of FIFA’s financial results for 1999-2002, before providing a current status report and an outlook for the future. Thanks to effective crisis management, the successful functioning of FIFA Marketing AG and the implementation of SCORE – a programme launched to strictly control costs and generate additional revenue – the four-year period ended with a surplus of CHF 115 million as opposed to the CHF 134 million deficit that had been forecast at the FIFA Congress in Seoul. These final results had originally been announced at FIFA’s first media conference on finances in Zurich on 8 April 2003, an event which marked yet another milestone in FIFA’s mission to offer complete transparency in financial matters and communication.
As regards the budget for 2003-2006, the General Secretary presented projected figures that suggest the period will end with a CHF 186 million surplus rather than the CHF 170 million originally predicted. This improvement, which will also have a positive effect on FIFA’s liquidity, can be attributed to additional opportunities to generate revenue, the acceleration of rights payments and the continuation of the SCORE programme. According to financial forecasts, FIFA expects to end the 2003-2006 period with liquidity of CHF 500-600 million and an equity, under IAS/IFRS, totalling CHF 350-450 million. As a result, FIFA will not need to seek any credits with banks or other financial institutions.
The Congress subsequently approved the 2004 FIFA budget by acclamation and also re-appointed KPMG as FIFA’s auditors for the period until 2006. In his capacity as chairman of the Internal Audit Committee, Franco Carraro (Italy) reported to the Congress delegates on the work that the body had carried out at the two sessions it had convened in order to complete its internal audit of FIFA’s finances. Another IAC member, Mathieu Sprengers (Netherlands), praised the cost-controlling efforts made by the FIFA administration.
Closing this point in the proceedings, the FIFA President said: “I thank all of you for your confidence in the work of FIFA, and your trust of its leadership and its various bodies in the financial domain.”