{"id":940782,"date":"2026-10-21T02:40:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T02:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/940782\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T02:40:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T02:40:16","slug":"infantino-set-to-take-his-fifa-reelection-campaign-to-japan-to-court-asian-soccer-federations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/940782\/","title":{"rendered":"Infantino set to take his FIFA reelection campaign to Japan to court Asian soccer federations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

FIFA president Gianni Infantino attends the Women’s U20 World Cup final between Spain and North Korea in Lodz, Poland last month.Beata Zawrzel\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Gianni Infantino\u2019s campaign for reelection as FIFA president is set to move this week to Japan and a meeting scheduled for Wednesday with the Asian Football Confederation.<\/p>\n

This comes after Infantino apologized last week in Zurich, Switzerland, to FIFA\u2019s 37-member ruling council \u2013 which he chairs \u2013 for \u201cmistakes\u201d he made in assembling a now-scrapped US$4.2-billion sell-off plan for the World Cup.<\/p>\n

The council is the main decision-making body at FIFA with a global spread of officials.<\/p>\n

Cathal Kelly: With pride and dignity checked at the door, Gianni Infantino isn\u2019t going anywhere<\/a><\/p>\n

The planned meeting with Asian soccer leaders is to be held in a five-star hotel in Tokyo with the media largely excluded.<\/p>\n

Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, the president of the AFC, expressed early opposition to Infantino and his plan to create a subsidiary to run the World Cup but may have moved closer to Infantino, The Athletic has reported.<\/p>\n

Infantino has offered to critics an open, independent review of how FIFA makes its decisions.<\/p>\n

Infantino is electioneering<\/p>\n

An Associated Press tally indicates Infantino is close to landing the simple majority of the 211 FIFA member federations he needs to win reelection in March to a fourth term. Some of the deciding votes could some from Asia.<\/p>\n

The AFC had joined the criticism of Infantino in the wake of the proposed World Cup sell-off, but its members appear far from united. Qatar, the 2022 World Cup host, has expressed support for the FIFA leader while Jordan has declared its opposition.<\/p>\n

The FIFA Council is scheduled to meet next on Dec. 16 in Doha, Qatar.<\/p>\n

The AP count shows 87 of the 211 FIFA Member federations have indicated support for Infantino \u2013 either in individual comments or by endorsing statements of support by their regional confederations. The largest block of opposition comes from Europe.<\/p>\n

The FIFA voting system<\/p>\n

No sitting FIFA president has lost an election since 1974. The deadline for a candidate to file against Infantino is Nov. 18.<\/p>\n

FIFA rules state candidates must have \u201cplayed an active role in association football (e.g. as a player or an official within FIFA, a confederation or an association, etc.) for two of the last five years before being proposed.\u201d They must have \u201cdeclarations of support\u201d from at least five of the 211 members.<\/p>\n

\u201cFIFA is a massive patronage network,\u201d Jules Boykoff, a political scientist at Pacific University and a former professional soccer player, told the AP. \u201cIt brings in billions from the men\u2019s World Cup and distributes it to football associations around the world in exchange for loyalty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe funds that FIFA distributes to soccer bodies around the world are meant to develop soccer, but there\u2019s scant oversight,\u201d Boykoff added. \u201cTo say FIFA is in need of structural overhaul [is] to make an enormous understatement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: FIFA president Gianni Infantino attends the Women’s U20 World Cup final between Spain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":940783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,561,82,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-940782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}