Gianni Infantino Elected President of FIFA
Posted On: February 26, 2016 By :
Gianni Infantino has been elected president of FIFA, and will complete the current term in office, which lasts through 2019. Infantino was selected on the second of two rounds of balloting, emerging victorious over Sheik Salman Bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, by a vote total of 115–88.
Infantino, the general secretary of the European soccer governing body UEFA, replaces Sepp Blatter, the longtime president of the global soccer governing body, who resigned after a series of scandals. Blatter is currently serving a six-year ban from the sport. Several other high-ranking FIFA officials have also resigned or received lengthy bans from the organization, or are under investigation for the roles in alleged bribery, including the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups.
“I want to be the president of all 209 national associations,” said Infantino. “I’ll travel the globe and continue to do this. I want to work with all of you together in order to restore and rebuild a new era in FIFA, where we can again put football in the center of the stage. FIFA has gone through sad times, moments of crisis, but those times are over. Now we need to go forward.”
Earlier in the day, the Extraordinary FIFA Congress approved a set of landmark reforms to FIFA’s governance structure, including improvements to the governance of global football, a clear separation of commercial and political decision-making, greater scrutiny of senior officials, and commitments to women in football and human rights.
Posted in: Sports Organizations