FIFA says incumbent Infantino is sole candidate for president
ZURICH: FIFA president Gianni Infantino will not face a challenger in June's elections to the head of world soccer's governing body, the organisation said on Wednesday.
"Following the call for election issued by the FIFA Council on 10 June 2018, FIFA's member associations have proposed, in due time and form, the following candidate for the presidential election to take place at the 69th FIFA Congress in Paris on 5 June 2019: Mr Gianni Infantino," it said in a statement.
Infantino's plans for a new expanded Club World Cup and a global Nations League tournament have put him at loggerheads with European confederation UEFA and club organisations.
However, no candidate from Europe emerged to challenge Infantino, the former UEFA General Secretary, who was elected in February, 2016, replacing the banned Sepp Blatter.
The Swiss official beat Asian Football Confederation President Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa of Bahrain in the final round of that election after Jordan's Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein and Frenchman Jerome Champagne had been eliminated.
Infantino owed his candidacy to the fact that Europe's preferred candidate, his former boss and UEFA president Michel Platini, was banned from football along with Blatter for ethics violations. Both men have denied wrongdoing. UEFA will hold their own elections at their congress in Rome on Thursday where incumbent, Slovenian lawyer, Aleksander Ceferin is unopposed.
Two-and-a-half-years after becoming UEFA president in the wake of the scandal that brought down Michel Platini, Aleksander Ceferin will win a new four-year term at the head of European football's governing body on Thursday.
The 51-year-old Slovenian lawyer — who saw off the Dutchman Michael van Praag in 2016 — is the only candidate this time in the election for the UEFA president, which will be take place at the organisation's Congress in Rome.
Previously the head of the Slovenian Football Federation, Ceferin's presidency so far has been marked by his discretion and a less charismatic approach than that of Platini.
The Frenchman is still suspended until October this year, when he will complete a four-year ban from all football-related activities following the corruption scandal that also brought down then-FIFA chief Sepp Blatter.
