Sport

Gianni Infantino has been named as Fifa’s new
president after gaining a majority vote at Fifa’s
extraordinary congress on Friday.
He succeeds the recently-resigned Sepp Blatter to
become the first new leader of Fifa for almost 20
years.
Blatter, 79, had been in charge of football’s governing
body since 1998 but decided to stand down amid a
corruption crisis.
And 207 delegates from around the world gathered in
Zurich to vote for his successor.
Infantino, 45, beat off competition from Sheikh
Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, Prince Ali bin al-
Hussein, Tokyo Sexwale and Jerome Champagne.
The Swiss has been the general secretary of Uefa
since 2009, and regularly headed up the Uefa
Champions League and Europa League draws.
First round voting results
88: Infantino
85: Sheikh Salman
27: Prince Ali
7: Champagne
French candidate Jerome Champagne was eliminated
from the first round of voting after only acquiring
seven votes, while took a three-vote lead after
earning 88 votes to Sheikh Salman’s 85.
The duo were believed to be the front-runners for
world football’s top job and it proved to be the case.
Second round voting results
115: Infantino
88: Salman
4: Prince Ali
0: Jerome Champagne
But Infantino emerged succesful in the second round,
passing the required majority of 104 to become Fifa
president by obtaining 115 votes.

 Suspended Uefa president Michel Platini was the
original favourite but he, like Blatter, was banned from
all football-related activities for eight years by Fifa’s
ethics committee.
Both men appealed the decisions made against them,
but Fifa’s appeals committee upheld the bans,
although they were both reduced to six years.
In the morning of the election, Fifa passed a package
of reforms.
There were five key reforms made: salaries will now
have to be disclosed, presidents will be limited to
three terms of four years, a separation of political and
managerial functions, a promotion of women in
football and human rights will now be enshrined in
Fifa statutes.

The candidates then addressed Fifa delegates for a
maximum of 15 minutes in an attempt to convince
members to vote for them.
At the end of Sexwale’s speech he pulled out of the
race to make the voting a four-horse race between
Champagne, Prince Ali, Salman and Infantino.
Each representative from every nation then went to
vote one by one in what can only be described as an
extremely slow process…
And there were no surprises from a British perspective
as FA Chairman Greg Dyke had publicly backed
Infantino for victory.

Once every nation had voted, their votes were counted
on a table at the front of the room and the result was
revealed.
As there was no two-thirds majority after the first
round of voting, a second round was called for.
That’s right, every single member state had to redo
their vote in what can only be described as the driest
election process of all time.

But Infantino emerged victorious, saying: ‘I cannot
express my feelings in this moment. I told you I went
through an exceptional journey, which made me meet
many fantastic people, who live and breathe football,
and many people deserve to see Fifa is highly
respected.
‘Everyone in the world will applaud us for what we will
do. Everyone will be proud of what we will do.’