October 31 – FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who stands for re-election in June next year, was banging the drum of the success of his own regime in the backyard of the man he beat to the presidency in 2016, yesterday.
Speaking at the AFC Congress in Kuala Lumpur, he thanked AFC president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa for the support he has received since beating him to the FIFA presidency, and spoke of the “constructive spirit” they have had in their work together which began “immediately” after that election.
Once again Infantino measured FIFA’s success almost excluvsiely in monetary terms, saying that under ‘Forward Progress’ and the new programme for football development “FIFA has multiplied by four the resources for world football.
“The AFC was receiving $20 million a year from FIFA in 2016, now it is receiving $80 million and in 2019 the amount will grow again to $100 million…This is possible thanks to the strong and solid situation FIFA is in today.”
Talking about the general health of FIFA, Infantino said: “We started with $5 billion in revenue. At the end of this year we will have $6.25 billion. $1.25 billion more than budgeted in the worst crisis FIFA has ever faced.”
He also announced reserves were at a record high of $2.3 billion, “why? Because we are working. We want to invest in the development of football worldwide.”
Asking for the AFC member association votes he said he already had significant support. “For the future election on 5 June in FIFA I have announced I will be a candidate, I have 180 letters of support already. Your support for me is support for all of you…I am working with all of you for the good of our beautiful game.”
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