World Football governing body, FIFA will receive $201m (£146m) in forfeited funds seized during a corruption probe, the US Department of Justice has announced.

The money, which was seized from the bank accounts of former officials who were prosecuted for corruption, will be used by the Fifa Foundation, an independent foundation, to help finance football-related projects which, Fifa says, can "positively impact so many people across the football world, especially through youth and community programmes".

More than 50 defendants had been criminally charged since the Department of Justice unveiled its corruption probe in 2015.

The 2015 scandal, the biggest in the sport's history, involved collusion between officials from the governing bodies and sports marketing executives, with fraud, bribery, racketeering and money laundering offences committed.

Twenty-seven people and four corporate entities have pleaded guilty, with two people convicted at trial.

It led to the end of Sepp Blatter's 17-year reign as the governing body's president and the election of Gianni Infantino as his successor in February 2016.

Several of the defendants were ordered to forfeit assets obtained through criminal activity.

Under United States law, the Department of Justice has the authority to distribute the proceeds of forfeited assets to victims of crimes, including to the football organisations that were defrauded.

The repayment will begin with an initial $32.3m (£23.5m).