Asian Football makes U-turn backs Infantino for fourth FIFA term

Asian football has thrown its weight behind FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s bid for a fourth term, in a sharp U-turn from its stance two months ago.

AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa announced the endorsement at the confederation’s extraordinary congress in Tokyo on Friday, embracing Infantino in front of members. “We affirm our full commitment to supporting you and your leadership as you seek a new mandate as the FIFA president,” he said.

The AFC has 47 members, and even if not all follow the direction, those that do could be key to securing Infantino another mandate, Al Jazeera reported, citing The Associated Press.

Just over two months ago, the AFC joined Europe’s and North and Central America’s governing bodies in saying Infantino had committed a “fundamental breach of trust” over his scrapped $4.2bn plan to sell a stake in FIFA events to private investors. Infantino apologised last week in Zurich to FIFA’s ruling council for “mistakes”.

Infantino accepted the AFC’s support.

The FIFA election is in March; no candidate has filed ahead of the November 18 deadline.