October 21 – Barring a miracle, Gianni Infantino will retain his FIFA presidency in 2023 after a third confederation threw its weight behind his re-election. On Friday, the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) confirmed it will unanimously back Infantino.
After playing football with the Indonesian FA president on the same day that the 133rd victim of the Kanjuruhan tragedy died, Gianni Infantino headed to New Zealand for the OFC meeting and got what he wanted.
The eleven member associations of the world’s smallest confederation have vowed to support Infantino for re-election at the FIFA Congress in Kigali, Rwanda next year.
With the OFC’s backing, Infantino is now all but assured of re-election after the Confederation of African (CAF) with 54 votes and Conmebol with 10 votes pledged their loyalty.
Earlier this month, Conmebol decided to vote Infantino. “After a conversation about the current reality and the future scenario for South American and global football, the associated members to CONMEBOL gave their unanimous support to Infantino,” said Conmebol in a statement.
No candidate has come forward to challenge the incumbent FIFA president and Insideworldfootball understands that UEFA, who have been at loggerheads with FIFA for the longest of times, will not put forward a challenger.
In 2016, Infantino, formerly UEFA’s general secretary, was elected FIFA president at the organisation’s extraordinary congress. He was re-elected in 2019 in Paris.
He has repeatedly claimed that FIFA has been cleaned up and is no longer a toxic organisation.
Infantino will attend the Women’s World Cup draw on Saturday. He will also travel to India later this month to watch the final of the U-17 Women’s World Cup.
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