Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa greeted Gianni Infantino with a large hug before the Asian Football Confederation membership in Tokyo on Friday, then offered the Fifa president the confederation’s backing for another term.
“We affirm our full commitment to supporting you and your leadership as you seek a new mandate as the Fifa president,” Sheikh Salman told the extraordinary AFC congress.
The warmth of the moment followed a sharp dispute in August. The AFC joined Uefa and Concacaf in a letter accusing Infantino of a “fundamental breach of trust” through deception over the Fifa Forward Enterprise scheme. The letter described “a profound failure of judgement...these are not the qualities football deserves in its leadership”.
The dispute centred on a failed proposal to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors through the Fifa Forward Enterprise scheme. Infantino later withdrew the $4.2 billion plan and apologised last week in Zurich to Fifa’s council for “mistakes” he made in putting it together.
Sheikh Salman acknowledged the earlier clash at Friday’s congress, while separating it from the endorsement. “Yes, we had some issues we spoke about in the past. But let's not relate the two things together. As one Asian family, we are ready to move forward, united in your support, Gianni,” he said.
The AFC has 47 member associations, 46 of which hold Fifa voting rights. Before Infantino took office in 2016, each AFC member received $1 million every four years. From the first of January of next year, AFC members will receive $25 million.
Infantino has also proposed increasing money distributed for football development around the world by $3.4 billion.
The Fifa election will be held in March, with nominations closing on 18 November. No candidate has yet entered the race against Infantino. Victor Montagliani, the president of Concacaf, and Aleksander Ceferin, Uefa’s chief, have indicated that they are not contenders.
At the March vote, Uefa will have 55 votes, Africa 54, Asia 46, Concacaf 35, Oceania 11 and Conmebol 10. An Associated Press tally published earlier this month found that Infantino was edging towards a simple majority among Fifa’s 211 member federations.
Comments (0)