{"id":891870,"date":"2026-10-23T11:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T11:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/891870\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T11:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T11:00:09","slug":"gianni-infantino-asian-football-chief-gives-fifa-president-re-election-lift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/891870\/","title":{"rendered":"Gianni Infantino: Asian football chief gives Fifa president re-election lift"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gianni Infantino’s hopes of being re-elected Fifa president have been given a major boost by an endorsement from the head of the Asian Football Confederation.<\/p>\n

President Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa told the confederation’s Congress in Tokyo – which was attended by Infantino – that “we reaffirm our full commitment, of course, to supporting you as you seek a new mandate as president”.<\/p>\n

Sheikh Salman’s backing represents a significant u-turn just two months after he signed a joint letter with the heads of Uefa and Concacaf criticising Infantino over his failed plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors. <\/p>\n

At the time the three confederations accused him of breaking trust “through deception”<\/a> over the Fifa Forward Enterprise scheme, and “a profound failure of judgement…these are not the qualities football deserves in its leadership.”<\/p>\n

But in what appears to be a blow to the rebellion against Infantino, Sheikh Salman told the meeting in Japan it was time “to move forward”.<\/p>\n

“I’ve spoken to a lot of members within this continent. I know your feeling and I think your commitment is clear as well. Your support to Gianni is very clear,” he added.<\/p>\n

“Yes, we had some issues, we spoke about them in the past, but let’s not relate the two things together…<\/p>\n

“As one Asian family, we are ready to move forward, united in your support, Gianni.”<\/p>\n

Alongside Infantino’s power base in Africa and South America, Sheikh Salman’s endorsement could be crucial in ensuring the Fifa president secures a fourth and final term. <\/p>\n

At the election in Rabat in March, Uefa will have 55 votes, Africa 54, Asia 46, Concacaf 35, Oceania 11 and Conmebol 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gianni Infantino’s hopes of being re-elected Fifa president have been given a major boost by an endorsement from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":891871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-891870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}