Page 17 [101]. Salaries are paid in CHF and have for accounting reasons to be converted to USD. The strengthening of the CHF against the USD in the last years leads to an increase of costs.Here is the CoE section 101 in full (p. 17 in this PDF):
In 2010, the total wage bill at FIFA was USD 65,280,000, distributed between 387 staff on average over the year, meaning that average pay per staff member was USD 168,682.17. The average monthly income at FIFA in 2010 was thus USD 14,056.85. FIFA's spending on salaries rose by 31.6% between 2009 and 2010 (from a total of USD 49,599,000 in 2009 to USD 65,280,000 in 2010), while the average number of staff members increased by only 7.2% over the same period. The financial report does not explain these increases and gives no information about the salaries of key management personnel.Let's explore whether FIFA's criticism is warranted. According to the FIFA Finanacial Report 2010 (here in PDF at p. 62), it used an exchange rate of 0.9505 CHF/dollar for 2009 and 0.9079 for 2010, reflecting a strengthening of the franc against the dollar. How would the CoE section 101 read if expressed in 2009 Swiss Franc conversion rates? Here is the answer:
FACTORING OUT EXCHANGE RATE EFFECTS IN THE CoE REPORT SECTION 101: In 2010, the total wage bill at FIFA was USD 62,354,000 distributed between 387 staff on average over the year, meaning that average pay per staff member was USD 161,122.09. The average monthly income at FIFA in 2010 was thus USD 13,426.84. FIFA's spending on salaries rose by 25.7% between 2009 and 2010 (from a total of USD 49,599,000 in 2009 to USD 62,354,000 in 2010), while the average number of staff members increased by only 7.2% over the same period. The financial report does not explain these increases and gives no information about the salaries of key management personnel.The average salary of FIFA employees changed by about 4% after taking into account exchange rate effects on the accounting, an amount which is insignificant in the context of the CoE's report. My conclusion: FIFA's complaint is a red herring.
Of course, rather than quibble about exchange rate effects in annual financial reports, FIFA could just release the details of its compensation packages. How hard would that be?
Roger, this is gripping stuff. I withdraw my slightly flippant comment on the previous post having had a better look at the whole CoE report. I'll have a proper look at both the FIFA 4-year accounts and the CoE doc tomorrow. I see now what the fuss is about, I hadn't really thought about it before. England's spats with FIFA also make more sense - we're really crap at corruption, honestly. The CoE's laconic bullet point style is excellent, and harder-hitting because of their lack of formal responsibility.
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