"Speaking or forming a view may perhaps risk that funding. You don't want to put that at risk because it's your livelihood." That's former Papua New Guinea international Alex Davani, and it explains the silence coming out of Oceania during FIFA's civil war more clearly than anything else you'll read this week.
The row over Gianni Infantino's scrapped FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal — which promised $40 million per association if all 211 members signed on — has divided world football loudly at the top. The big confederations have been vocal. Oceania has been quiet. Davani, a lawyer, sports administrator, and former deputy general secretary of Football Australia, says that silence isn't apathy. It's arithmetic.
The real flaw: entitlement vs. discretion
FIFA's development funding has grown substantially under Infantino — from $2-3 million over a four-year cycle to $8 million in the last round. For Oceania's smaller member associations, that money isn't a supplement to their operations. It often is their operations. PNG got a new national football centre in 2023, funded by FIFA Forward money. The Solomon Islands got one too. Vanuatu has a new stadium.
But Davani's core argument is that this money is discretionary, not guaranteed — and that's the structural problem nobody wants to say out loud while Infantino is still holding the cheque book.
"Nowhere in the FIFA statutes is it enshrined that development money is an entitlement versus discretionary money," he said. "We all believe that the World Cup and the Women's World Cup belong to us — the development funding derives from those major assets." The logic is sound. If the revenue comes from a tournament that represents all 211 member associations, the funding flowing back shouldn't depend on political goodwill.
What Oceania actually needs from FIFA leadership
Davani doesn't think the $40 million figure was the real issue anyway. The region needs something harder to promise: a FIFA president who understands that inter-island travel costs are crippling, that climate change is literally erasing playing surfaces, and that developing indigenous talent requires investment in systems, not just stadiums.
He points to Tim Cahill — who played for Samoa before switching allegiance to Australia — and French World Cup winner Christian Karembeu, born in New Caledonia, as proof that Oceania produces genuine talent. The infrastructure around that talent has consistently let it down.
"I don't think talent has been the issue," Davani said. "I think it's been the systems around that talent."
The 11-member Oceania federation met Wednesday to discuss the FIFA schism. Whatever comes out of those talks, the underlying problem Davani identifies won't be solved by one meeting — or one president's promises. As long as development funding stays discretionary, smaller nations will keep their heads down. That's not a conspiracy. That's just survival.
