Infantino's African problem

Within hours of Gianni Infantino’s reelection as FIFA president, the smile was wiped off his face by the latest farcical twist within CAF.

- Keir Radnedge

As Infantino was assuring the world that his new FIFA was as bright and shiny as Jurgen Klopp’s teeth, French police were waiting to pounce on African confederation president Ahmad over corruption allegations.

To rewind: Swiss lawyer Infantino was elected in 2016 to serve out the remaining three years of the term to which banned and disgraced Sepp Blatter had been voted in 2015. Infantino had been parachuted in by European federation UEFA after its own president, Michel Platini, had been banned himself over a murky financial deal with Blatter.

Hence Infantino stood for reelection this year in Paris to a first of a possible three four-year term in his own right. He can serve a maximum of three terms, so could be with us all until 2031 if he plays his cards right – and he is a smart operator with canny advisers.

No one challenged Infantino. How could anyone? He had fulfilled the two major promises of his 2016 campaign in expanding the World Cup and ramping up development hand-outs. He had even teased his members with the (never realistic) possibility of 48 teams at the World Cup in Qatar.

The latter issue was kicked out of court by a brief press release shortly before Congress at which delegates from FIFA’s 211 member nations were left with nothing to do except acclaim Infantino’s coronation.

Congress kicked off at 9 am and the final whistle was blown at 11.45am. They could not even tease it out until a respectable time for lunch.

This is a flavor of it all. Infantino told Congress: “Today nobody talks about crisis. Nobody talks about rebuilding FIFA from scratch. Nobody talks about scandals and corruption. Now we talk about football.