BY SABELO GWEBU
MBABANE– Gianni Infantino was today, Thursday, March 16 re-elected as FIFA president during the 73rd Congress in Kigali, Rwanda.
The Italy-born administrator is promising record revenues in the next four-year cycle of US$11 billion as he called for more football to be played around the world.
Eswatini Football Association (EFA) President Peter ‘Samora’ Simelane, Vice President Mashumi Shongwe, and the General Secretary Frederick Mngomezulu are attending the Congress in Kigali which makes Rwanda the first country in the Council for Eastern and Central African Football Association (CECAFA) region to host a FIFA Congress.
Infantino stood unopposed, making his re-election as head of football’s governing body a formality. He was first elected in an Extraordinary Congress in 2016 following the resignation of his predecessor Sepp Blatter and retained his position unopposed three years later but this counts as his second term of office and he will therefore be available for a third and final term in four years.
Infantino confirmed FIFA’s income hit record levels in the last cycle from 2019 to 2022, but promised to substantially raise this again on the back of expanded men’s and women’s World Cup tournaments and the introduction of a 32-team Club World Cup.
“Revenues rose to a record US$7.5 billion (to 2022) in a period that was hit by COVID-19. When I arrived, FIFA reserves stood at around $1 billion, today they are at almost US$4 billion,” Infantino said.
“We promise new record revenues for the next cycle of US$11 billion, and the new Club World Cup is not included in that figure, so it could increase by a couple of billion (more).”
Infantino said FIFA would continue to review the transfer system to ‘improve transparency’ and suggested the organisation might discuss a salary cap.
“We must improve our regulations and the FIFA statutes. We will continue to evolve our good governance principles and look at the transfer system, and maybe have a discussion to improve the transparency of transfer fees and salaries. It might be necessary to introduce a cap; we have to think about how we can do that. We will look at it with all stakeholders and see what we can do.”
