SportsCatch
EN

Asian football chief backs Infantino for re-election in sharp reversal of stance

AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa publicly endorsed Gianni Infantino for another FIFA term at an extraordinary congress in Tokyo, just two months after the confederation accused him of a fundamental breach of trust over the now-scrapped $4.2bn World Cup deal.

1 min read
Asian football chief backs Infantino for re-election in sharp reversal of stance
Share

The Asian Football Confederation has endorsed Gianni Infantino for re-election as FIFA president, marking a striking reversal just two months after the body accused him of a “fundamental breach of trust.”

AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa delivered the endorsement in person at the confederation’s extraordinary congress in Tokyo on Friday, greeting Infantino with a public embrace before the membership. “We affirm our full commitment to supporting you and your leadership as you seek a new mandate as the FIFA president,” Sheikh Salman said, adding that he had consulted widely across the continent and was confident the sentiment reflected the majority view of AFC members.

The turnaround is significant. In August, the AFC joined UEFA and CONCACAF in condemning Infantino over a $4.2 billion plan to commercialise the World Cup, a proposal that was subsequently scrapped. Infantino apologised to FIFA’s 37-member ruling council in Zurich last week for “mistakes” made in assembling that deal.

Sheikh Salman acknowledged the friction in his Tokyo speech without dwelling on specifics. “Gianni, I want to make it clear. Yes, we had some issues we spoke about in the past,” he said. “But let’s not relate the two things together. The past I’m sure is part of our history. We’ve all, I’m sure, learned important lessons from it. What matters now is how we move forward together.”

The AFC’s 47 member associations represent a substantial bloc of votes ahead of the FIFA presidential election scheduled for March. Sheikh Salman conceded that not every member would follow his lead — “My feeling is, I’m sure, the feeling of most of my members” — but even a strong majority of AFC votes could be decisive in securing Infantino another mandate.

The deadline for rival candidates to file against Infantino is 18 November. As of Friday, no challenger had come forward, leaving the incumbent on course for an uncontested election if that situation holds.

Share
{# Sitewide native fullscreen interstitial — our own bet-CTA card blown up to a takeover (replaces the SDK overlay). The shared card animations + countdown load once, AFTER the interstitial markup, so the countdown script's first tick sees this card's node too (the in-read card, in
above, already exists). One include covers both surfaces. #}