What You Need To Know About the New FIFA President

Gianni Infantino defeated his closest rival and election favourite, Sheikh Salman of Bahrain to become the new president of world’s football governing body FIFA for a period of three years on Friday. He usurped Mr. Salman by 27 votes in the second ballot to emerge President, scoring 115 of the 207 eligible votes whilst Mr. Salman got 88 votes. The 45-year-old, who has dual nationality Italian and Swiss, replaces his fellow Valais native, Sepp Blatter after the latter was forced to step down following the corruption scandal that rocked the football world last year. Prior to his election, he was the Secretary General of the European football governing body, UEFA for seven years between 2009 and 2016. Infantino, who trained as a lawyer at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, joined UEFA back in August 2000, going on to become the Director of UEFA’s Legal Affairs and Club Licensing Division and Deputy General Secretary of UEFA in 2004 and 2007 respectively. He is best known for his role during the UEFA Champions League draws, and also oversaw the expansion of UEFA Euro 2016 to 24 teams. He also played a role in the conception of the UEFA Nations League and the UEFA Euro 2020 that will take place in 13 European nations. Infantino is a polyglot who speaks, at least, six international languages – English, Italian, French, Portuguese, Spanish and German. He also knows Arabic as he is married to a Lebanese woman, with whom he has four children. A lifelong Inter Milan fan, he was expected to play second fiddle in the elections as he was a replacement candidate for Michel Platini, the UEFA president, who is currently serving a 6-year ban from all football activities, alongside Mr Blatter. Infantino wants to expand the FIFA World Cup to 40 teams. His first tenure as FIFA president will end in 2019 and can only hold the office for a maximum of 12 years according to the new reforms reached by FIFA delegates on Friday.

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This article was first published on 29th February 2016

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