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Fifa has announced the creation of a partnership with a Saudi Arabian government agency, with up to $1bn (£762m) being pledged to fund the development of football infrastructure across the globe.
The game’s global governing body announced on Monday that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Saudi Fund for Development that would lead to it offering discounted loans “for the construction and rehabilitation” of stadiums and other infrastructure. Under the arrangement, priority for any loans will be given to developing nations.
In a statement Fifa said that the new partnership would seek to “support national governments in designing, financing, and building modern multi-sport venues”.
The Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, said the funding was needed to build the kind of stadiums that would enable countries to stage Fifa-approved tournaments. “Many of our Fifa member associations need additional support for the infrastructure necessary to host competitions,” he said. “This agreement is a crucial step in ensuring our Fifa member associations have the facilities to make football truly global.”
The arrangement is only the latest addition to a burgeoning relationship between Fifa and Saudi Arabia. The Gulf state will host the men’s World Cup in 2034, while its state-owned oil company, Aramco, became a “major worldwide partner” of Fifa last year in a four-year arrangement.
The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), meanwhile, was an official partner at this summer’s Club World Cup, while its spin-off company, Surj Sport Investment, bought a $1bn stake in the streamer Dazn after it had itself paid $1bn to acquire the exclusive global rights to the Club World Cup. Last week, when a Saudi delegation visited Washington for meetings with the US president, Donald Trump, Infantino was part of the group that accompanied Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House.
Fifa is a not-for-profit organisation and, in a recent letter to the Guardian, its director of media, Bryan Swanson said: “The revenue [Fifa] generates is reinvested to fuel the growth of football – men, women, youth – throughout Fifa’s 211 member associations globally. Fifa already distributes millions of dollars of its funds to its member associations each year under the Fifa Forward programme. This money is largely used to cover the running costs of associations and for developing participation at a national level, however, and it is understood that a different scale of funding was deemed necessary for the development of stadiums, and national stadiums in particular.”
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The Saudi Fund for Development has been in operation since 1974. Providing loan financing to developing countries, it has long concentrated its investments on infrastructure, last year loaning $100m to fund hydropower projects in Pakistan. According to a Fifa statement, the new arrangement reflects a change in priorities for the fund, where it “is elevating sport infrastructure as a core component of its development agenda, recognising the sector’s unique ability to generate employment, boost tourism, promote health, and strengthen community ties”.
