ZURICH, Oct 25: FIFA’s finances are in a ‘privileged to comfortable’ situation and world football’s governing body had not yet suffered any impact from the global finance crisis, President Sepp Blatter said on Friday.“We received a detailed analysis of the potential impact and can say that we are now in a situation that could be described as between privileged and comfortable,” Blatter told a news conference following a two-day executive committee meeting.

“For the time being we have not lost money and are well equipped to face up to the current crisis thanks to our financial policy which involves a diversification of assets and very low exposure to currency or foreign exchange volatilities.

“We also have 95 percent of our budget already under contract and have managed our costs. The diversification of our portfolios and our television contract partners gives us cautious optimism for the future,” he added.

Blatter announced that FIFA had bought insurance cover providing protection for up to $650 million in the event that either of its next two World Cups in 2010 and 2014 had to be cancelled, postponed or relocated.—Reuters