Gianni Infantino has been re-elected FIFA president

The Italian-Swiss Gianni Infantino was re-elected this Thursday as FIFA president until 2027a position he has held since 2016, during the congress of the world’s top football body which takes place in Kigali, Rwanda.

Infantino, 52, was re-elected without opposition and by acclamation as happened in 2019 by the delegates of the organization’s 211 national federations, including the president of AFA, Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia.

the boss could be kept until 2031 at the helm of world football, as his first three years, which he took over when Joseph Blatter was suspended for corruption, is considered incomplete.

“I love them,” the Italian-Swiss reacted to the delegates who applauded them standing up, without the voting system allowing to know if there were dissident voices, reported the AFP news agency.

In his assets, Infantino has shown solid financial balance, with an 18 percent increase in revenues and 45 percent increases in reserves in the 2019-22 cycle compared to the previous one, which allows FIFA to increase its subsidies to confederations and federations.

Now the main works for the next few years are underway, starting with the passage of the Men’s World Cup from 32 to 48 teams from the 2026 edition, organized by the United States, Canada and Mexico, decided in 2017 and whose format was set last Tuesday.

By opting for a group stage with 12 groups of four teams, the tournament will go from 64 to 104 games, an endless race designed to explode economic revenues.

Added to this is that FIFA decided on December 16 to expand its Club World Cup from an annual seven-team format to a quadrennial 32-team competition starting in 2025, a project Infantino has been trying to achieve for a long time. time to compete with the lucrative UEFA Champions League, but which promises to be difficult to fit into the calendar.