Asian Football Confederation endorses Infantino for new FIFA term in U-turn

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has endorsed Gianni Infantino for another term as FIFA president, in a reversal announced by its president, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, at an extraordinary congress in Tokyo on Friday.

Sheikh Salman embraced Infantino in front of the membership before delivering the endorsement. "We affirm our full commitment to supporting you and your leadership as you seek a new mandate as the FIFA president," he said.

The AFC has 47 member confederations. Even if all of them do not follow Friday's direction, those that do could be key to guaranteeing another mandate for Infantino, who leads the governing body of world football and is seeking a fourth term.

Election timetable

FIFA's presidential election is in March. The deadline for candidates to file against Infantino is November 18, and so far none has filed.

Sheikh Salman indicated that not every AFC member would go along with the endorsement, but that most would. "My feeling is, I'm sure, the feeling of most of my members," he said.

Turnaround follows apology

Just over two months ago, the AFC joined the football governing bodies of Europe and of North and Central America in saying Infantino had committed a "fundamental breach of trust".

Infantino apologised last week in Zurich to FIFA's 37-member ruling council, which he chairs, for "mistakes" he made in assembling a now-scrapped $4.2bn plan to sell a stake in FIFA events, including the World Cup, to private investors.

Sheikh Salman referred to the past differences without going into detail. "Gianni, I want to make it clear: Yes, we had some issues we spoke about in the past," he said. "But let's not relate the two things together. I think the last few days we met in Zurich, you made it clear that there's a true understanding between us."

He added that the past was "part of our history" and that lessons had been learned. "What matters now is how we move forward together," he said.

Infantino acknowledges mistakes

Infantino took the podium after Sheikh Salman and kept his remarks light, but acknowledged some errors. "When you do many things, you do – hopefully, as we did, many good things – you do some mistakes as well," he said. "The important, however, is, as you said, to learn, to learn always from the experience, from the mistakes, to apologise, to move ahead, to come together, to unite, to build for our future."

FIFA's media office has been promoting Infantino's travels around the world, seeking votes in exchange for millions of more dollars in financial support for small and large football countries. Sheikh Salman said Infantino had been "everywhere" and joked that he perhaps had a "clone".

Infantino said payments to member associations would rise. "Before I started as FIFA president... each of you was receiving $1m every four years," he said. "As of the first of January of next year, it will be $25m."

Source: Al Jazeera.