PARIS — Gianni Infantino, the 49-year-old lawyer who was picked to lead FIFA out of the biggest crisis in the soccer governing body’s history, secured a second term in office by acclamation on Wednesday after running unopposed for the sport’s top job. A statute change announced this week meant delegates from soccer’s 211 national governing bodies did not have to take a vote at the FIFA Congress in Paris to show their support for the Swiss-born Infantino as he sought a full four-year term. His rise to the top came after a major corruption scandal removed a generation of the sport’s top leaders in 2015, including his longtime predecessor, Sepp Blatter, and Infantino’s former boss, Michel Platini, a former French soccer great who was head of the European governing body and who had seemed destined to take the global role. The results have been mixed. Infantino stabilized FIFA’s finances after they were battered by legal costs related to a sprawling Department of Justice investigation into corruption, and he succeeded in expanding FIFA’s most prominent and lucrative event, the men’s World Cup, to include 48 teams starting in 2026.

Source: New York Times June 05, 2019 09:33 UTC