By Andrew Warshaw
February 18 – England is the latest country to announce it is backing Gianni Infantino for the FIFA presidency next week, adding its voice to a raft of other European nations officially endorsing the UEFA general secretary.
The English FA originally openly supported Michel Platini but had to rethink its strategy after the UEFA president was banned for eight years for financial wrongdoing in December and Infantino stepped into his shoes.
Platini is awaiting the imminent outcome of his appeal but has decided to no longer contest the election and the FA had to decide whether to endorse his replacement or choose the same man as last time, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, the European-backed candidate in last May’s head-to-head ballot against Sepp Blatter who is stepping down after 18 years in charge.
In the end the English decided to once again go with the European flow and opted for Infantino, a likely source of frustration for Prince Ali and his campaign team.
Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, Tokyo Sexwale and Jerome Champagne are the other contenders vying to succeed Blatter, who became FIFA president in 1998 but announced he was stepping down last June, just four days after having been re-elected for a fifth term, blaming pressure of the FIFA corruption scandal. Like Platini, he too was later banned by FIFA’s ethics committee over the SFr2 million so-called “disloyal payment”.
“I spoke to every candidate either in person or on the phone,” said English FA chairman Greg Dyke. “We were impressed by Gianni. We were also impressed by Prince Ali but in the end we decided to go with the UEFA candidate.”
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