Mbabane: Eswatini Football Association (EFA) has E11 921 000 to utilize in the fight against the novel Coronavirus and resume domestic football.
World football governing body president Gianni Infantino announced a whopping $500 000 (E8 515 000) for Covid-19 fight for its 211 member associations while THE Confederation Of African Football (CAF) released E3 406 000 million to each of its 54 members to restart domestic football currently halted by the virus which has killed over 400 000 people across the globe.
The lump sum amounts to E11 921 000. However, EFA and the Premier League of Eswatini Governors (BoGs) are currently at loggerheads on whether to start the Covid-19 halted season or not. EFA through its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Frederick Mngomezulu announced three weeks ago that football will resume in phases starting June 15.
The PLE BoGs are skeptical, with a reported 20 members having signed against the restart. According to information from FIFA website, each national governing body will receive $500,000 (8 515 000 million), that FIFA says would normally be delivered “upon fulfillment of specific criteria”, but will release those funds and any “remaining entitlement for 2019 and 2020”.
The total to be released by FIFA is USD 150 million to its member football associations to help handle financial troubles caused by the coronavirus. FIFA said that “all operational funding” for 2019 and 2020 would be distributed amongst the 211 member associations in the next few days “as the first step of a relief plan to assist the football community impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic”.
Each national governing body will receive $500,000 (E8 515 000), that FIFA says would normally be delivered “upon fulfillment of specific criteria”, but will release those funds and any “remaining entitlement for 2019 and 2020”. FIFA president Gianni Infantino said that the funds were the “first step of a far-reaching financial relief plan we are developing to respond to the emergency across the whole football community”.
“It is FIFA’s duty to be there and support the ones that are facing acute needs,” added Infantino. “This starts by providing immediate financial assistance to our member associations, many of which are experiencing severe financial distress.” The funds come from the Forward 2.0 programme, which was launched in 2016 and will provide $1.746 billion in total over the 2019-2022 periods.
At its meeting last Thursday (28 May 2020) via video-conference, the CAF Emergency Committee approved the immediate distribution of further financial grants to Member Associations (MA) to support the management of football at the domestic levels hugely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of USD 10.8 Million (E183 924 000) will be transferred to the 54 MA’s on the continent as part of a relief plan to ease the financial burden on the African football community during these unprecedented times. This translates to just over E3.4 million to be exact for each member association.
The current United States Dollar to Lilangeni exchange rate is at E17.03 per dollar. “Due to the fast-spread of COVID-19, African MA’s have suspended all domestic competitions, which has brought about huge financial burdens on their shoulders. CAF has thus decided to wave the eligibility requirements to access the annual grants, so all MA’s can benefit during this difficult period,” said CAF President Ahmad Ahmad on CAF Online.
Also, CAF is assessing the opportunity of additional financial support to MA’s for the resumption and organisation of their domestic competitions.
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