There was a lot of talk going into Friday’s FIFA presidential election with Sepp Blatter’s removal. It meant that there would be a new president for the first time in 18 years. It came down to the UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino and Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Kahlifa and on the second vote, Infantino got the 115 votes he needed to win the election to become the new president.
Infantino is 45 years ago and who is a lawyer and sports administrator who joined the governing body in 2000 and moved all the way up to the general secretary takes over for Blatter, who got a six-year ban from soccer last year following a corruption scandal. It wasn’t even anticipated that Infantino would be on the ballot at all but was put on there after UEFA President Michel Platini was banned from running himself because of a similar scandal.
He promised during his campaign that there would be more guaranteed funding from the $5 billion World Cup revenue to member federation along with more places in an expanded 40-team tournament. There is also the chance for multiple countries to host the event every four years. Infantino has a huge hill to climb to get the respect of many nations with the issues that FIFA has had over the past year or so. The World Cup has been in turmoil for 2022 in Qatar as well because of the scandals. It will be up to Infantino to calm the fears of many.
FIFA President Vote: Gianni Infantino Wins
