Prince Ali Thanks FIFA for Delayed Arab Cup Payout

Jordan’s players and coaches have finally received their prize money for reaching the 2025 Arab Cup final – eight months late and amid an escalating row between their federation president, Prince Ali bin Hussein, and FIFA.

Two days after publicly accusing FIFA of “blackmail”, Prince Ali revealed that the long-awaited payments landed in Jordan’s accounts on Thursday morning, ending a financial stand-off but deepening a political one.

“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,” Ali wrote on X. “This was funding that should have been received eight months ago.”

The delay had been one of the examples he cited when he claimed that FIFA officials, during last year’s World Cup, verbally suggested that his endorsement of President Gianni Infantino “would go a long way to helping our FA out”. The implication was clear: political support in exchange for solving the association’s financial headaches.

FIFA has not commented on those allegations, declining to respond to requests for a statement.

Money arrives, mistrust remains

For the players and staff, the sudden release of funds brings a long-awaited reward for their run to the final in Qatar. For their federation president, it changes nothing about his view of how world football is being run.

Ali welcomed the payment but framed its timing as part of a wider problem inside FIFA, especially 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, stressing that the transfer of money would not soften his stance.

Then came the line that cuts to the heart of the power struggle.

“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.”

That refusal lands at a delicate moment for FIFA. Infantino is pushing to extend his tenure into a fourth and final term, with elections scheduled for March. He has already survived a bruising backlash over an abandoned plan to sell a stake in the World Cup’s commercial rights, a proposal that triggered uproar from confederations and national associations and forced a rapid retreat.

Under fire, still entrenched

Earlier this week, UEFA figures attacked the scheme and questioned FIFA’s direction under Infantino. Legal threats followed. Senior European officials cast themselves as defenders of football’s governance model, while Infantino’s allies tried to shore up his authority.

On Wednesday, after a crisis meeting in Morocco, FIFA apologised to its members for “mistakes” around the commercial rights plan. The climbdown did not extend to the man at the top: the organisation’s leadership closed ranks and reaffirmed its support for Infantino.

That show of unity now sits alongside a very public rejection from a sitting federation president in Prince Ali, a long-time critic of FIFA’s internal politics and a former challenger for the presidency himself.

Jordan’s players finally have what they earned on the pitch. Their federation chief has what he wanted financially, but not what he says football needs most: a change at the summit of the global game, just months before the sport votes on whether to give Infantino one last term.