Prince Ali Thanks FIFA for Late Arab Cup Payment
The money finally arrived. The message did not change.
Jordan’s players and coaching staff have at last received the prize money owed for reaching the 2025 Arab Cup final, Jordan Football Association president Prince Ali bin Hussein revealed on Thursday – just two days after he publicly accused FIFA of blackmail.
The payment, long overdue in Jordan’s eyes, dropped into the association’s accounts on Thursday morning. It had been outstanding since December, when Jordan reached the final of the FIFA Arab Cup in Qatar.
“Thank you to the FIFA administration for suddenly this morning delivering what was owed to our players and coaching staff, for the Jordan National team’s accession to the final of the FIFA Arab Cup in Qatar last December,” Prince Ali posted on X. “This was funding that should have been received eight months ago.”
The timing of the transfer is impossible to ignore.
At the start of the week, Prince Ali had launched a fierce attack on FIFA president Gianni Infantino, accusing world football’s governing body of trying to leverage Jordan’s financial difficulties in return for his political support. Ali said FIFA had verbally indicated during the World Cup that backing Infantino “would go a long way to helping our FA out”.
One of the issues he highlighted was precisely this unpaid Arab Cup prize money, which the JFA had been waiting on for months.
FIFA has not commented on the allegations, declining to respond to requests for a statement.
The row stems from Infantino’s controversial and ultimately abandoned proposal to sell a stake in the World Cup’s commercial rights – a plan that triggered heavy resistance from confederations and national associations. Prince Ali said Infantino withdrew the proposal under that pressure, and claimed that in the background FIFA had hinted at financial help for Jordan if he fell into line and endorsed the president.
Ali has chosen a different path.
While he welcomed the fact that his players and staff have finally been paid, he made it clear the late transfer does nothing to ease his concerns about how FIFA is being run or how power is exercised around presidential elections.
“It is symptomatic of those exact difficulties that we all face and that are usually linked to the FIFA presidential elections,” he said. “And it does not change my clear position concerning the leadership of FIFA: my FA and I will not endorse President Infantino, nor will we vote for him.”
The broader political storm around FIFA shows no sign of easing.
European officials have already sharpened their stance, with UEFA figures questioning governance standards and legal letters flying over the now-scrapped World Cup commercial rights plan. On Wednesday in Morocco, FIFA’s leadership held a crisis meeting and issued an apology to its members for “mistakes” made over the proposal. Even as it did so, the inner circle closed ranks around Infantino, reaffirming support for the man at the centre of the storm.
Infantino, who has already served a decade at the helm, is pushing to extend his presidency into a fourth and final term, with the election set for March.
Jordan now has its Arab Cup money. The players and coaches, at least, can move on.
The politics at the top of the global game are only getting started.
