Gianni Infantino was elected FIFA’s new president on Friday, taking over from the disgraced Sepp Blatter and with the mission to rebuild world football’s scandal tainted governing body.
Advertisement
Uefa’s general secretary secured 115 votes in the second round of polls, beating off favourite Salman Bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa into second while Prince Ali bin Hussein finished third.
Had Platini not billed FIFA for 2 million Swiss francs ($2 million) in 2011 and been banned previous year from football as a result, the former France captain and not his UEFA No. 2 would be in charge of the global game. All five candidates had worked extensively in and around the organization, and one of the candidates, Prince Ali, said that these campaigns have all been conducted by the rules of “old Federation Internationale de Football Association”. “It’s your money”, added Infantino, sounding more like a CEO promising a dividend to shareholders.
The first round of voting had failed to determine an outright victor. Jerome Champagne, the fourth candidate in the fray, did not get any votes in the second stage.
Speaking right after the prince, Sheikh Salman quickly aimed a barb at Prince Ali for reading from notes. Indeed, the only other time Infantino ran for president came when he was just 18 years-old, when he chose to run for club president of a small amateur soccer club in his local town of Brig, Switzerland.
Blatter was re-elected for another presidential term in May 2015 but stepped down as FIFA’s president a few days later amidst a high-profile corruption scandal.
A rare burst of spontaneous applause followed, signalling a shift in momentum toward Infantino, who since his 30s managed the billion-dollar Champions League revenues for UEFA.
FIFA’s financial problems provoked by the corruption crisis, and ailing staff morale, were detailed by acting secretary general Markus Kattner.
Blatter is also under investigation by Swiss authorities on “suspicion of criminal mismanagement”.
Blatter praises Infantino’s “experience, expertise, strategic and diplomatic skills” in a statement, the Associated Press reported.
Advertisement
“Asia is the world’s most populous continent where football continues to develop at an impressive pace”.
