FIFA reported a $122M loss in '15, a year in which it spent "months reacting to a continuing corruption case" in the U.S and a "parallel criminal inquiry in Switzerland," according to Rebecca Ruiz of the N.Y. TIMES. That marks the first time in 13 years the organization reported a loss. FIFA's financial disclosure shows expenses ballooned to $1.3B, $62M of which "was spent on legal fees" and $26M on communications. The report, which "for the first time revealed how much top FIFA employees were paid," was the "latest in a carefully timed set of events that sought to advance the characterization of FIFA as a victim of its former leaders' corruption and an organization newly serious about change." The disclosures "came days after FIFA appealed" to U.S. authorities "for a share of the money they are set to collect from soccer officials who have so far pleaded guilty in the Justice Department's case" (N.Y. TIMES, 3/18). The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Joshua Robinson reports former FIFA President Sepp Blatter took home $3.76M in '15, while former FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke earned $2.1M. The revelation "is significant, because FIFA had guarded the numbers so closely." Publishing top execs' compensation at the organization "had been debated for more than two years" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/18).
