Gianni Infantino to get 4 more years as FIFA president after unopposed for next year’s election

Global governing body of football, FIFA, said in a statement on Thursday that incumbent president Gianni Infantino was the only one to submit candidature for the elections, which will be held in March 2023.

Gianni Infantino to be FIFA president for 4 more years (AP Photo)

By India Today Web Desk: Gianni Infantino is all set to continue as the president of FIFA for four more years. He is set to be unopposed at the elections next year as no other candidate stepped up to challenge his candidature. The global governing body of the sport said in a statement on Thursday that Infantino was the only person to submit his nomination for the FIFA elections before the deadline on Thursday. The elections are set to be held on March 16 in Kigali, Rwanda.

“Following the call for election issued by the FIFA Council on 30 March 2022, FIFA’s member associations have proposed, in due time and form, the following candidate for the presidential election… No other candidature has been submitted,” FIFA said in a statement.

Gianni Infantino has been in charge of FIFA since 2016 when he won a 5-way race to replace former president Sepp Blatter. The Swiss-Italian football administration was re-elected in 2019. Infantino is now set to stay in the job until after the end of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Infantino’s upcoming re-election to the $3 million-per-year job may not be his final term in office. FIFA rules allow him to run again to stay in power for another World Cup cycle until 2031, according to news agency AP. The first three years of Intantin’s presidency, which came when he stepped in to complete Blatter’s unfinished term does not count in the 12-year limit agreed to in reforms passed during a prolonged corruption crisis before his first election.

Infantino was in charge of FIFA when the global football body was dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. The difficult period saw FIFA dip into its $2 billion-plus reserves and oversee emergency legal measures to help stabilize the game during the pandemic. The global health crisis almost entirely shut down World Cup qualifying games in 2020.

However, Infantino will be in Qatar when the Arab country hosts the FIFA World Cup from November 20.

Infantino still needs to pass an integrity and eligibility check carried out by a FIFA-appointed review panel chaired by a judge from India, Mukul Mudgal. That should be a formality in the weeks ahead.