Infantino’s re-election campaign heads to Japan

Gianni Infantino’s campaign for re-election as FIFA president moves to Japan this week in a meeting scheduled today with the Asian Football Confederation.

This is after Infantino apologized last week in Zurich to FIFA’s 37-member ruling council — which he chairs — for “mistakes” he made in assembling a now-scrapped US$4.2 billion sell-off plan for the World Cup.

The council is the main decisionmaking body at FIFA with a global spread of officials.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino attends the opening game of the Women’s U20 World Cup opening match between Poland and Argentina in Katowice, Poland, on Sept. 5.

Photo: AP

The planned meeting with Asian soccer leaders is to be held in a five-star hotel in Tokyo with the media largely excluded.

AFC President Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa expressed early opposition to Infantino and his plan to create a subsidiary to run the World Cup, but may have drawn closer to Infantino, The Athletic has reported.

Infantino has offered to critics an open, independent review of how FIFA makes its decisions.

An Associated Press tally indicates Infantino is close to landing the simple majority of the 211 FIFA member federations he needs to win re-election in March to a fourth term. Some of the deciding votes could come from Asia.

The AFC had joined the criticism of Infantino in the wake of the proposed World Cup sell-off, but its members appear far from united. Qatar, the 2022 World Cup host, has expressed support for the FIFA leader while Jordan has declared its opposition.

The FIFA Council is scheduled to meet next on Dec. 16 in Doha, Qatar.

The Associated Press count shows 87 of the 211 FIFA Member federations have indicated support for Infantino — either in comments or by endorsing statements of support by their regional confederations. The largest block of opposition comes from Europe.

No sitting FIFA president has lost an election since 1974. The deadline for a candidate to file against Infantino is Nov. 18.

FIFA rules state candidates must have “played an active role in association football [e.g. as a player or an official within FIFA, a confederation or an association, etc.] for two of the last five years before being proposed.” They must have “declarations of support” from at least five of the 211 members.

“FIFA is a massive patronage network,” Jules Boykoff, a political scientist at Pacific University and a former professional soccer player, said in an interview. “It brings in billions from the men’s World Cup and distributes it to football associations around the world in exchange for loyalty.”

“The funds that FIFA distributes to soccer bodies around the world are meant to develop soccer, but there’s scant oversight,” Boykoff added. “To say FIFA is in need of structural overhaul is an enormous understatement.”