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Gianni Infantino: Will anyone stop re-election of Fifa president?


Infantino’s initial statements after the fall of FFE included some criticism of those who opposed it.

More recently, he has appeared to be more conciliatory, perhaps aware that this approach may be more effective in winning the war.

“When you go through a journey, sometimes concerns are raised,” he told the conference in Cape Verde.

“When they are raised, we have to address them. As far as we are concerned at Fifa, we address them always with the spirit of dialogue and with open arms, an open heart and an open mind. We can always be better and do better.”

If, as expected, Infantino does stay then Uefa wants reform of Fifa governance.

But Uefa may come across issues here, too.

Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, the president of the Asian confederation and a Fifa vice-president who sits on the Council, had been a fierce critic of Infantino.

But this week, in a letter sent to Ceferin, Montagliani and Infantino, Al Khalifa distanced himself from a “wholesale redesign of Fifa’s governance system”.

Al Khalifa said change should be “driven by the football institutions themselves, rather than being outsourced to an external party”.

It makes it less likely that, once again, Uefa will get what it wants.

Uefa also wants each country to be paid an additional $10m (£7.6m) from Fifa’s vast reserves of around $6bn (£4.5bn).

In a perverse kind of way, Infantino bowing to that demand would probably cement his position even further.

After all, money is a vote-winner for the Fifa president.


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