Infantino set to take his FIFA re-election campaign to Japan to court Asian football federations
FILE PHOTO: FIFA President Gianni Infantino looks set to gain the simple majority required for his re-election with support from few nations from the AFC. | Photo Credit: AP
FILE PHOTO: FIFA President Gianni Infantino looks set to gain the simple majority required for his re-election with support from few nations from the AFC. | Photo Credit: AP
Gianni Infantino’s campaign for re-election as FIFA president is set to move this week to Japan and a meeting scheduled for Wednesday with the Asian Football Confederation.
This comes after Infantino apologised last week in Zurich, Switzerland, to FIFA’s 37-member ruling council — which he chairs — for “mistakes” he made in assembling a now-scrapped $4.2 billion sell-off plan for the World Cup.
The council is the main decision-making body at FIFA with a global spread of officials.
The planned meeting with Asian football leaders is to be held in a five-star hotel in Tokyo with the media largely excluded.
Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, the president of the AFC, expressed early opposition to Infantino and his plan to create a subsidiary to run the World Cup, but may have moved 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 some 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 December 16 in Doha, Qatar.
The Associated Press count shows 87 of the 211 FIFA Member federations have indicated support for Infantino – either in individual 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 November 18.
ALSO READ | UEFA gives FIFA a Nov. 2 deadline to release Infantino World Cup plan documents
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 football player, told The Associated Press. “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 football bodies around the world are meant to develop football, but there’s scant oversight,” Boykoff added. “To say FIFA is in need of structural overhaul it to make an enormous understatement.”
Published on Oct 20, 2026
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