Swiss Gianni Infantino has been FIFA President since 2016, succeeding Joseph Blatter. “I want to herald a new era at FIFA in which football is the focus again,” said Infantino after his first election and announced reforms. He will seek a third term at the 73rd FIFA Congress in March next year. The Confederation of South America (CONMEBOL) has unanimously endorsed Infantino for re-election as President of the Confederation. A statement from the FA said Infantino received “the unified support of CONMEBOL member federations after an exchange of views on the present and future of South American football and world football”. The Continental Confederations of Asia (AFC) and Africa (CAF) had already expressed their support for Infantino in recent months.
CONMEBOL’s popularity comes as a surprise at first glance, as the association has been one of Infantino’s harshest critics along with the European association UEFA. In particular, his idea of holding the World Cup every two years in future met with incomprehension from the South American association. So why the turnaround? According to experts, the upcoming award of the 2030 World Cup in 2024 will play a decisive role. The four CONMEBOL members Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Paraguay jointly applied to host the anniversary tournament, 100 years after the first World Cup ever, in 1930 in Uruguay.
CONMEBOL President Alejandro Doninguez wants to be awarded the contract to host the 2030 World Cup
CONMEBOL President Alejandro Dominguez is aware of the tough competition. Among others, the Ukraine, Spain and Portugal are jointly applying. In a press conference in August, Rodriguez said the 2030 World Cup in South America was “the dream of the whole continent”. And for this dream all means seem right. The announced support for the incumbent can be seen as an attempt to gain FIFA’s support for the South American bid.
Million dollar bait
Infantino’s real arguments for the biennial World Cup, which was vehemently rejected by the top divisions, were – once again – the expected additional income: according to FIFA 4.4 billion US dollars. Of this, 3.5 billion should be used for development projects in football. Each of the 211 member associations would have received an additional $19 million.
Promises of this kind have method for Infantino and ensure that he can be fairly certain of his job as the most powerful man in world football. When he was first elected, the announced doubling of development aid payments was the deciding factor, especially for the smaller nations. “At the end of the day everyone will benefit: the small and the big, the poor and the rich,” Infantino said at the time. With the South American FA now on his side, re-election as FIFA President at the FIFA Congress in Kigali, Rwanda in mid-March should be a mere formality.
With the votes of the South Americans, the Asians and the Africans, Infantino already has more than half of the delegates behind him. All 211 member associations of FIFA are entitled to vote, each with one vote. These are divided among the six confederations of Europe (55), Africa (54), Asia (46), North and Central America (35), Oceania (11) and South America (10). It is still unclear how UEFA will position itself on a potential re-election of Infantino. The European association declined to comment on a request from DW.
controversies and scandals
Infantino, who has now moved his life to Qatar, seems untouchable. This is all the more surprising in view of the fact that he has long been criticized for opaque machinations. In 2017, the FIFA Ethics Committee investigated the Swiss. At the time, he was suspected of influencing the presidential elections of the African continental association CAF and thereby violating FIFA’s code of ethics.
Gianni Infantino with former CAF President Ahmad Ahmad (r.)
The 52-year-old is said to have campaigned for the candidate Ahmad Ahmad from Madagascar, who prevailed in the March 2017 election in Addis Ababa against the then CAF boss Issa Hayatou from Cameroon. A month earlier, Infantino attended a birthday party in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. The celebration was hosted by Ahmad’s campaign manager, Phillip Chiyangwa. FIFA’s code of ethics stipulates that every official must behave in a “politically neutral” manner.
In May 2017, the head of the ethics committee was surprisingly dismissed, so the investigation came to nothing. Former chief investigator Cornel Borbely said at a press conference in Bahrain at the time that this step was throwing FIFA “back years”. Critics suspected that Borbely and his colleague, the German lawyer Hans-Joachim Eckert, were replaced because Infantino feared that further investigations could bring him into explanations.
In June 2019, Ahmad Ahmad was arrested and FIFA banned him for five years. Under his leadership, millions of dollars seeped into Africa’s football. It was about the breach of loyalty obligations and the misappropriation of funds. The ban was later reduced to two years by the International Court of Arbitration for Sport CAS.
Infantino expects ‘biggest show in the world’ in Qatar
Criminal proceedings against Infantino have also been ongoing in Switzerland since the summer of 2020 – because of secret meetings with the former federal prosecutor Michael Lauber, who was investigating against FIFA at the time, among other things, because of irregularities in the award of the World Cup to Qatar. The appointed special public prosecutor sees signs of incitement to criminal behavior such as abuse of office, breach of official secrecy and favoritism. Lauber resigned from all offices a short time later.
On November 21st the World Cup begins in Qatar
For years, Infantino has been criticized for awarding the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. Human rights organizations are raising serious allegations against the organizer of the winter tournament, not least because of the at times appalling working conditions for the numerous guest workers on the World Cup construction sites. National football associations also expressed concerns and called for clear criteria for awarding World Cups in the future. Nevertheless, Infantino is euphoric about the tournament in Qatar, which will be played from November 21st to December 18th. “It will simply be the best World Cup in history, the greatest show in the world,” said the 52-year-old with a smile on his face at the FIFA Congress in Doha at the end of March.
There are almost five months left until the FIFA President on March 16, 2023. The deadline for submitting candidates has been set at four months before the congress, and one month before the event it must be clear which applicants will be admitted. Infantino faced no opposition when he was re-elected in 2019. That could happen again in 2023. After all, who applies when the majority is clearly in favor of the previous FIFA boss?