BY SABELO GWEBU
MBABANE– The EFA President, Vice President, and Secretary are attending the 73rd FIFA Congress in Kigali, Rwanda.
The major discussion points have already been settled before delegates gather for the Congress tomorrow, including the format for the 2026 World Cup and Gianni Infantino’s next term as president.
Incumbent Infantino will stand unopposed making his re-election a formality, even if he is not universally popular among member associations for a range of reasons, including pushing for a failed plan to play the World Cup every two years.
The EFA’s President Peter Simelane, Vice President Mashumi Shongwe, and General Secretary Frederick Mngomezulu are attending the 73rd FIFA Congress. Some of the agenda items for this congress include the FIFA President’s address, Election of the FIFA President for the 2023-2027 term of office, and FIFA’s Annual reports amongst others,” said the Eswatini Football Association through its Marketing and Communications Officer Muzi Radebe.
Officially, the expansion of the World Cup finals to feature 48 teams at the 2026 event to be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, with a format that will see 104 matches played, up from 64, to bolster FIFA’s already burgeoning revenues will be announced.
It will mean more funding for poorer member associations like EFA, who will each receive a minimum of US$ 8 million (approximately E145 680 000) for the cycle between 2023 and 2026.
FIFA announced in December that its projected revenue would rise to US$ 11 billion for this next cycle, a jump from US$ 7.5 billion in the period up to 2022.
Rwanda will host the 73rd FIFA Congress to be held in Kigali on Thursday, making Rwanda the first country in the Council for Eastern and Central African Football Association (CECAFA) region to host a FIFA Congress.
Rwanda also hosted the FIFA Council meeting in October 2018. The other African countries that have hosted the FIFA Congress before include Morocco (Marrakech, 2005) and Mauritius in 2013.
