FIFA has confirmed that President Gianni Infantino has been re-elected for a second term as its president.
The former Secretary-General of UEFA will be the leader of the football’s world governing body till 2023 after he was re-elected without opposition at the annual congress of the association in Paris.
The 49-yera-old Swiss-Italian, succeeded Sepp Blatter in 2016 and has introduced several amendments to football including the increase in the number of teams at the 2026 World Cup and other key changes to the World Cup. Ex-president Blatter was in charge for 17 years until he was banned amid a corruption scandal in 2015.
Infantino’s re-election was marked by a round of applause, after rules were changed earlier in the day to no longer require a vote from FIFA’s 211 members if only one candidate was standing. In a lengthy speech at the congress, Infantino focussed on the relative calm of his first term in charge compared to the situation he inherited.
Infantino was behind the expansion of the World Cup from 32 teams to 48 for the 2026 tournament, which will be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Plans to bring the expansion forward to the 2022 World Cup were however abandoned last month.
In March, FIFA approved Infantino’s plans for a 24-team Club World Cup starting in 2021, despite top European clubs saying they would boycott the tournament.
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