Fifa braced for losses from South Africa's hosting of 2010 World Cup

Matt Scott
The Guardian

Fifa expects to make a marginal loss on the 2010 World Cup, in contrast to the £178m profit it made in the 2006 tournament year. A senior Fifa source yesterday told Digger that the governing body expects to be called upon to underwrite "a few thousand dollars" in overall losses in South Africa this year.

But that is a much happier picture than the one Fifa painted eight months ago, when releasing its accounts for the 12 months to the end of 2008. To guard against financial risks, Fifa has been hoarding cash since the 2002 World Cup and by January 2009 it had exceeded its £500m equity target by £63m.

A statement read: "At the halfway stage in the 2007-2010 period, Fifa had already achieved its objective of increasing equity to at least £500m by the end of 2010. Nevertheless, a definitive assessment of Fifa's equity can only be carried out once the 2010 Fifa World Cup has been successfully staged."

At that point Fifa was concerned about the financial impact of the potential postponement or relocation of the tournament. The source stressed that this was only a possible financial consequence and that enormous losses are "out of the question" now. The true picture of Fifa's finances will be made clear within the coming weeks with the release of the 2009 accounts, but the source underlined that the organisation's equity is now "far above" the £500m target. Which will no doubt come as a considerable relief to football associations around the world.

Budget blues

Fifa's South Africa experience might now be a happy one, but not all of its World Cups break even. There is relief in Zurich at the latest independent audit of the under-17s World Cup, which revealed losses relating to that tournament, in Nigeria last year, to be considerably less than the $30m (£18.5m) first feared. Now they are said to stand at $10m (£6.2m), which is still going some on a budget of $18m (£11m).

Green shoots for County

Haydn Green, the now-departed saviour of Notts County, is set to have a say in the club's affairs from beyond the grave. It is believed that Green laid down detailed criteria for all future investment at the club. Green's estate is understood still to have a major influence in how deals are structured, as the freeholder to the Meadow Lane stadium the club lease. And given its experience at the hands of Munto Finance, the last investors the club's chairman, Peter Trembling, brought to the table, do not be surprised if the estate stipulates that all creditors must be paid off in full before it gives a green light. That is, after all, what on Wednesday the high court directed should happen.

Online own goal

The Remote Gambling Association, an online bookmakers' body, has released a report pointing out the value of the industry's financial input into sport. "[It] provides €3.4bn (£2.9bn) per annum to EU sport alone," it said. But hold on, haven't we seen this figure before? That's right: in an RGA report two months ago that stated 92% of the money flowing back to sport from gambling comes out of statutory levies and lottery awards, with only €200m from sponsorship and donations. Small wonder the Sports Rights Owners' Coalition, a pressure group calling for the levy principle to be widened to sports other than horse racing, had a view. "This is a spectacular own goal by the betting industry," said a spokesman. "We'll be using their research to make the case to the UK government for a fair return for sport."

Charlton in box seat

One name the Football League might consider as its new chairman, to succeed the outgoing Lord Mawhinney, pictured, is that of Eddie Charlton. The highly respected banker (they do exist) made it on to the short list for the Football Association chairmanship in 2007, but was beaten to the post by Lord Triesman. With the League this time keen to look beyond Westminster it should be encouraged that the talk in the City is that Charlton is keen on taking up the Gloucester Place role