FIFA officials hold workshop in Coral Gables to discuss how to invest in future of soccer

The 2026 World Cup is still two years away, but FIFA is already deep into preparation, and much of the work is being done in and around the organization’s U.S. tournament headquarters in Coral Gables.

This week, officials of 24 national federations from South America, Central America and North America were in town for the FIFA Forward Workshop Americas. The three-day seminar focused on how to best allocate funds raised from the World Cup and other tournaments for the development of the sport, particularly in countries lacking resources.

The CONMEBOL confederation will host this year’s U-20 Women’s World Cup in Colombia in August, just the second time that a FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup has been held in South America. The U-17 Women’s World Cup will be held in the Dominican Republic in October and November. The United States will host the FIFA Club World Cup in the summer of 2025, and the 2026 World Cup will be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada.

With so many events, and so much revenue expected to pour in, the FIFA Forward program has earmarked $2.25 billion to provide increased funding for soccer development. During the four-year period, each FIFA member association will be entitled to receive $8 million, while confederations can receive up to $60 million and zonal unions such as the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) $5 million.

Member associations are responsible for deciding how they want to use the funds, but all projects must be approved by FIFA and go through exhaustive audits, as soccer’s governing bodies are committed to being much more transparent and responsible financially than they were in the past.

“The idea of this workshop is to exchange ideas and best practices around the region,” said Jair Bertoni, director of member associations americas. “We discuss how to best invest in the development of the sport on the men’s side, women’s side, youth and senior levels. That includes everything from improving infrastructure, coaching education, tournament opportunities, everything to strengthen the base of the soccer pyramid.”

Two federations that have benefited from FIFA Forward in recent years are Honduras and Colombia.

Jose Andres Mejia, the secretary general of the Honduras federation, said there is a clear “before and after” the current FIFA leadership and the FIFA Forward program. He pointed out that the Honduran national teams had inadequate facilities, and now they have a professional training center and accommodations.

“The biggest difference is how the governance has changed,” Mejia said. “We will get $8 million this four-year cycle, and if we manage it properly, that can go a long way. Now there is transparency with money FIFA is allocating, we get audits from Price Waterhouse Cooper and that gives us, and potential sponsors, confidence that the money will go where it is supposed to. Before there was no control. That has been a big change under [FIFA President) Gianni Infantino. That was one of his promises, and he has delivered on that 100 percent.”

Andres Tamayo, secretary general of the Colombian federation, explained that they launched a women’s professional league seven years ago and are now seeing the fruits of their labor. The Colombian women reached the quarterfinal of the 2023 Women’s World Cup, beating Germany 2-1 along the way and losing 2-1 to England.

“By offering the women’s teams better coaching, facilities and more professionalism, those players are exposed to high level competition so when they get to the world events they are prepared,” Tamayo said. “The FIFA Forward resources definitely helped in that regard.”

One of the top priorities throughout FIFA is the advancement of the women’s game, Bertoni said.

According to a 2023 member associations survey, 16.6 million women and girls play organized soccer globally. Concacaf (North and Central America and the Caribbean) has 7.072 women and girls playing organized soccer, which is the most of any Confederation. CONMEBOL (South America) has 913,084 women and girls playing, which is up from approx. 141,000 women in 2019.