Gianni Infantino has been re-elected as the president of FIFA until 2027 after running unopposed at the world football body’s 73rd congress in Kigali, Rwanda, on Thursday.
The 52-year-old Swiss won by acclaim instead of a formal vote by the congress of 211 member federations, whose basic annual funding from FIFA has risen from $250,000 to $2 million since his first win in 2016.
Infantino, originally a lawyer, was first elected in 2016, following a crisis in FIFA and a troubling United States federal investigation for corruption that resulted in the removal of a number of top football officials in the Americas and the resignation of the former association’s president, Sepp Blatter.
The FIFA president compared his reluctance to give up to Rwanda’s recovery from its 1994 genocide and credited his reelection to his uncompromising stance. He also discussed how, in 2016, while debating dropping out of the race, he traveled to the East Africa African for his first election campaign.
“It is an incredible honour and privilege, and a great responsibility,” Infantino said. “I promise to continue serving FIFA and football around the world.
“To those that love me, and I know there are many, and those who hate me…I love you all.
“And sadly, I don’t even know President, if you know that, but suddenly somebody came to see me and he gave me a ticket for the match of the final because I had no ticket for the final match. That, by the way, the DRC won, and he told me this is a ticket offered to you by President Paul Kagame. And then I decided…I thought about it, and I remembered my visit to the Memorial, and you should go all to visit the Memorial, all of you, and I said who I am to give up?”
“What this country has suffered, and how this country came back up is inspiring for the entire world. So, I certainly couldn’t give up because somebody was telling me something. I stayed. I attended the match. I continued to campaign. I was elected FIFA president, a few months later. But most importantly, I witnessed how this country flourished, and this country flourished with nothing, starting from nothing, he added.
Infantino also revealed that FIFA’s income hit record levels in the last period from 2019–22 but promised an exponential increase following the emergence of the expanded men’s and women’s World Cup tournaments and the introduction of a 32-team Club World Cup.
“Revenues rose to a record $7.5 billion [in 2022] in a period that was hit by COVID-19. When I arrived, FIFA reserves stood at around $1bn, today they are at almost $4bn,” Infantino said.
“We promise new record revenues for the next cycle of $11bn, and the new Club World Cup is not included in that figure, so it could increase by a couple of billion [more].”
Infantino who is in his second term of office, will be available for a third and final term in four years’ time.
