Kozo Tashima: Japanese football chief to challenge Infantino for FIFA presidency

Kozo Tashima, 68, has announced he will run against Gianni Infantino for the FIFA presidency at the governing body's election in March, becoming the first person from Japan to seek football's top administrative post.

Tashima, who has the backing of the Japan Football Association (JFA), said his decision rested on a belief that "in this age of business and money, sport must firmly uphold its integrity". He told reporters after announcing his candidacy that the worst outcome would be Infantino continuing without an election. "I feel this is a test of whether FIFA has the ability to cleanse itself," he said.

A life in football

Tashima first started playing football after watching the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Born in southern Kumamoto, he captained his team to the title in Japan's national high school championship. With no professional football in the country at the time, he planned to become a PE teacher and enrolled at university, where he was called up to play for Japan's full national team.

After graduating he joined a club in Japan's amateur league, retired as a player and went to Germany to train as a coach, studying at the German Sport University Cologne. He described his "profound shock" at the standard of play there: "Even back in 1980, the training in Germany was hugely scientific and systematic. Everything seemed like a different world from Japan, and it was a big culture shock for me."

He returned home and coached a university team before joining the JFA, where he worked on development programmes and coached youth national teams. He rose through the ranks and was elected president in 2016, also serving on the Asian Football Confederation executive committee and the FIFA Council.

As JFA chief he fired Japan coach Vahid Halilhodzic two months before the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Halilhodzic, who was unpopular with the players, was replaced by Akira Nishino, and Japan reached the last 16, where they were eliminated by Belgium. "Some people told me that I wasn't the one who hired Halilhodzic so it wouldn't be my fault if the team lost," Tashima said. "But as president, all the responsibility lay with me."

He stepped down as JFA chief in 2024 and was named honorary president. He rarely makes headlines; one of the few times he appeared outside the sport pages was when he became one of the first public figures in Japan to contract coronavirus in March 2020.

Concerns about FIFA decisions

Tashima said he was troubled by FIFA's decision to lift a ban on United States player Folarin Balogun at this year's World Cup after an intervention by US President Donald Trump. He said he also had a problem with the travel restrictions placed on Iran's World Cup team by American authorities.

He said his bid was "not about winning or losing". "What matters is sharing with the world the integrity that Japan's football has built over the years," he said.

Source: Al Jazeera.