Alex Muzio, the chairman of the Union of European Clubs, addresses the organization’s forum at The Hotel in Brussels, Belgium, on November 18, 2025.
Union of European Clubs
Alex Muzio, the chairman of the Union of European Clubs (UEC), a body representing mid-sized and smaller clubs on the continent, has called out FIFA for failing to distribute the $250 million solidarity payment promised from last summer’s inaugural 32-team Club World Cup.
In his speech at the UEC’s Forum in Brussels, Belgium, Muzio highlighted FIFA’s inaction: “The Club World Cup participants received their prize money – otherwise they would have probably not turned up as you may have noted from the conversations around Real Madrid at the time. But the solidarity money? Haven’t heard anything about it. It’s on to the next topic to distract, I guess – maybe a peace prize, maybe at the next FIFA press conference, which may come at the next Club World Cup?”
“The Club World Cup hit the full house on the bingo card of terrible governance: wild-card team added on a whim because Lionel Messi plays for them, calendar trampled on without any real consultation, dynamic pricing and ticketing, the cartel clubs distancing themselves from the rest. Mythical promises about solidarity.”
FIFA did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
In the build-up to the Club World Cup, FIFA announced a solidarity mechanism with a target of an extra $250 million for non-participant clubs across the world. The solidarity program was to assuage fears that the tournament’s excessive prize money of $1 billion would further distort competitive balance.
That prize money was not shared equally but distributed according to a participation-success distribution key, ensuring that Europe’s biggest clubs benefited the most. Real Madrid, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain all made the semi-finals. The Athletic calculated that $623.1 million of the $1 billion wound up in the hands of 12 European clubs. Stakeholders in the European game were alarmed. The European Leagues, representing 35 domestic leagues, pointed to huge “polarization”.
The gap between FIFA’s promises and the lack of action exposes an accountability issue, according to the UEC.
Former Everton player and UEC CEO, Gareth Farrelly, says: “At the time, people were questioning whether that was a realistic figure or whether that would be the final amount. And it never materialized. So it’s used as a justification with regard to how successful it was. But just for those non-participating clubs globally, I don’t believe anyone’s gotten a check yet. Have you?”
In a recent letter to The Guardian, FIFA’s media director Bryan Swanson, defending FIFA’s decision to establish a peace prize, wrote that “The revenue it generates is reinvested in football, and all 211 member associations benefit from the commercial success of the Fifa World Cup.”
Farrelly said: “The point is that there are never any questions asked.”
FIFA boss Gianni Infantino has always claimed that his organization has been reformed, but Muzio believes that a decade after FIFAgate, the global governing body is lacking, more than ever, the slightest form of good governance. He explained: “There are no more votes, just votes by acclamation, there is no more engagement. There is no interaction. FIFA is really going beyond the pale in terms of interaction, transparency, and governance. It’s pretty clear that FIFA governance has somehow worsened in the last ten years, which is coming from the lowest possible bar.”