{"id":654795,"date":"2026-10-23T11:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T11:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/654795\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T11:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T11:20:13","slug":"asian-football-confederation-backs-gianni-infantino-in-u-turn-on-fifa-presidency-fifa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/654795\/","title":{"rendered":"Asian Football Confederation backs Gianni Infantino in U-turn on Fifa presidency | Fifa"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Asian Football Confederation has endorsed Gianni Infantino for another term as Fifa\u2019s president in a turnaround in its stance from two months ago when it criticised the head<\/a> of football\u2019s world governing body for a breach of trust.<\/p>\n

The AFC president, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa, speaking at the body\u2019s extraordinary congress in Tokyo on Friday, embraced Infantino with a large hug in front of the membership as he delivered his endorsement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe affirm our full commitment to supporting you and your leadership as you seek a new mandate as the Fifa<\/a> president.\u201d Sheikh Salman said. \u201cYou\u2019ve visited a lot of countries in Asia. I\u2019ve spoken to a lot of members within this continent. I know your feeling and I think your commitment is clear as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AFC has 47 member associations. Even if all the members do not follow the direction of Sheikh Salman, those votes could be a key to guaranteeing another mandate for Infantino. The Fifa election is in March and nominations close on 18 November. So far no one is standing against him.<\/p>\n

Addressing his remarks to Infantino, Sheikh Salman indicated not every AFC member would go along with the endorsement but that most will. \u201cMy feeling is, I\u2019m sure, the feeling of most of my members,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve said that to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is an abrupt turnaround for Sheikh Salman. In August, the AFC joined Uefa and Concacaf \u2013 the North and Central American and Caribbean confederation \u2013 in saying that Infantino had committed a \u201cfundamental breach of trust\u201d. They wrote an open letter calling for \u201cleadership that serves football, not seeks to command it\u201d.<\/p>\n

Infantino apologised last week in Zurich to Fifa\u2019s council \u2013 which he chairs \u2013 for \u201cmistakes\u201d he made in assembling a now-scrapped $4.2bn plan<\/a> to sell chunks of the World Cup to private investors. Sheikh Salman referenced the differences with Infantino in his speech but glossed over any details.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we had some issues we spoke about in the past,\u201d he said. \u201cBut let\u2019s not relate the two things together. I think the last few [times] we met in Zurich you made it clear that there\u2019s a true understanding between us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even before the AFC endorsement the indications were that Infantino was edging toward a simple majority of the 211 Fifa member federations.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter |Every weekday<\/p>\n

Sign up to Football Daily<\/p>\n

Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The largest applause came at the end of Sheikh Salman\u2019s address when he repeated his support for Infantino. Fifa\u2019s president took the podium after and acknowledged some errors. \u201cWhen you do many things, you do \u2013 hopefully, as we did, many good things \u2013 you do some mistakes as well,\u201d Infantino said.<\/p>\n

The largest applause came as he mentioned how, under his leadership, more millions were flowing. \u201cBefore I started as Fifa president, each of you, some of you are still [here] and still remember that time \u2026 Each of you was receiving $1m every four years. As of the first of January of next year, it will be $25m.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get in touch<\/p>\n

Contact Guardian Sport<\/p>\n

The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know. If you have something to share on this subject, you can contact us confidentially using the following methods:<\/p>\n

Secure Messaging in the Guardian app<\/p>\n

The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS<\/a>\/Android<\/a>) and go to the menu. Select \u2018Secure Messaging\u2019. When asked to select a recipient, select the \u2018Sport (UK and Global)\u2019 team.<\/p>\n

SecureDropIf you can safely use the tor network without being observed or monitored you can send messages and documents to the Guardian via our SecureDrop platform.<\/a><\/p>\n

Finally, our guide at theguardian.com\/tips<\/a>\u00a0lists several ways to contact us securely, and discusses the pros and cons of each.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Show more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Asian Football Confederation has endorsed Gianni Infantino for another term as Fifa\u2019s president in a turnaround in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-654795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}