Infantino is a lawyer from Brig in the Valais region of Switzerland, less than six miles from Blatter’s hometown of Visp. We’re going to win back this respect through hard work, commitment and make sure that finally, once again, we can focus on this wonderful world that is football.
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“We’ve known him for some time as secretary general at UEFA and we have always found him pleasant, competent, organised, a good leader and that is what Federation Internationale de Football Association needs”. “I trust Gianni Infantino will provide the leadership to achieve this, as well as the rest of the reforms that are now urgently needed”.
Swiss authorities are reviewing more than 150 reports of suspicious financial activity linked to those awards, and said on Thursday they had sent more documents including an internal FIFA report to USA investigators.
“Your active and fruitful work at global sport organizations and a significant personal contribution to the development of the football movement have helped you to gain prominence and authority”.
Fifth contender Tokyo Sexwale had withdrawn from the race shortly before the voting.
Those totals meant Infantino fell 50 votes shy of securing election on the first ballot.
Genuinely multi-lingual – he speaks accent-less English, French, Italian, German and Spanish as well as a little Arabic and Portuguese – Infantino used several of the languages in speeches on Friday.
In his manifesto, Infaninto had pushed for increasing the number of teams at the FIFA World Cup from 32 to 40.
Perhaps one of the more stunning part of Infantino’s victory is that he only ran for president out of desperation, practically. “(Infantino) is a young, dynamic man who has done a superb job at UEFA”.
It resonated with members of the corruption ravaged soccer bodies of the Americas, known as CONCACAF and CONMEBOL.
In the first round, Infantino surprising led with 88 votes.
Prince Ali bin al-Hussein was third with four votes, while Jerome Champagne failed to get any.
Infantino succeeds fellow Swiss Sepp Blatter. He will be president until May 2019, completing the remainder of Blatter’s term.
Of course, Platini would later be handed an eight-year ban, which was recently lowered to six years.
Sheikh Salman, a member of Bahrain’s ruling family and Asian confederation head, was the favourite going into the election but Gianni Infantino edged the first round by just three votes. An attorney, Infantino has also served as a member of FIFA’s Reform Committee.
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Sheikh Salman got 88 votes after being the front-runner during the four-month campaign. The issue of Bahrain’s human rights record was often cited by Gulf activists but had not seemed to seriously trouble voters outside Europe. A total of 41 people and marketing agencies have been indicted or made guilty pleas, and Blatter is a target.
