Gianni Infantino is re-elected to lead FIFA until 2027 – News of Brazil

Gianni Infantino was re-elected president of FIFA during the 73rd Congress in Kigali, capital of Rwanda, on Thursday (16), promising record revenues of US$ 11 billion for the 2023-27 cycle.

Infantino has had no opposition bids, making his re-election as head of football’s governing body a formality, even though he is not universally popular with member associations and has been embroiled in controversies, including his treatment of migrant workers in the run-up to the World Cup. last year’s World Cup in Qatar and a failed attempt to turn the tournament into a biennial.

Infantino confirmed that FIFA’s revenue reached record levels in the last 2019-22 cycle, but promised to increase substantially again with the expansion of the men’s and women’s World Cup tournaments and the introduction of the 32-team Club World Cup.

“Revenues rose to a record $7.5 billion (through 2022) in a Covid-19-hit period. When I arrived, FIFA’s reserves were around US$ 1 billion, today they are almost US$ 4 billion”, Infantino said.

“We promised a new revenue record of US$ 11 billion for the next cycle, and the new Club World Cup is not included in this figure, so it could increase by (another) few billion”he added.

Infantino said FIFA will continue to review the player transfer system for “improve transparency” and suggested that the organization might discuss a salary cap.

“We must improve our regulations and the FIFA statutes. We will continue to develop our good governance principles and look at the transfer system, and perhaps have a discussion to improve the transparency of transfer fees and salaries.”he stated.

“It may be necessary to introduce a cap, we have to think about how we can do that. We will look into it with all stakeholders and see what we can do.”he concluded.

controversies

Amidst the financial success of his seven years in office, Infantino also courted controversies that made him unpopular with some associations at the sporting body.

He accused critics of host Qatar’s human rights record of hypocrisy and racism.

The Desert State tournament led to a significant amount of political discussion over the host’s treatment of migrant labor, its approach to LGBT rights, and FIFA’s threats to penalize players for political statements.

This included banning the armband “One Love”, which drew the ire of many.

FIFA has already spoken about creating a fund to help and compensate the migrant workers who helped build the stadiums and other infrastructure for the World Cup, but so far no concrete plans have been revealed and Infantino made no mention of it in his Thursday’s speech.

He suggested that FIFA had cleaned up its act on governance. “Every dollar that is being invested in projects and associations will undergo an independent audit. Money is no longer losthe said.

“That’s why the institutions have regained confidence in FIFA. The US Department of Justice returned more than $200 million stolen to us by corrupt officials. We reinvest that in football.”completed.

Player welfare groups have questioned FIFA’s decision to expand the men’s World Cup from 64 games to 104, but Infantino says there needs to be more football played around the world.

“When I hear there is too much football, yes, maybe in some places but not all. In fact, in most parts of the world, football is not played enough.”argued.

“We need a lot more and not less competitions, we want football to develop all over the world”he declared.

“We are discussing organizing a Women’s Club World Cup and a FIFA World Series in March every two years, when teams cannot play in the qualifiers.”

Source: CNN

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