A beautiful new day for the beautiful game as new FIFA president elected

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Michel Platini and Gianni Infantino in 2015

IT HAS been a long time coming but following many scandals, the election of UEFA secretary general, the Swiss Gianni Infantino as successor to disgraced fellow Swiss, Sepp Blatter will mean that FIFA can return to governing the world of football rather than the world of banking.

He was a relatively late entrant to the race once it became clear that former heir to the throne Michel Platini was going to have to withdraw his candidacy following his ban from office alongside Blatter but he was by no means the favourite for the post.

In the end, there was no outright winner following a first vote, but after a second round, he gained 115 votes, 27 more than original favourite, the President of the Asian Football Confederation and member of the Bahrain royal family Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa.

Prior to the election, the former president who lives less than 10 miles away from Mr Infantino said that he had been approached for advice on who to vote for by many delegates and let drop the fact that he had recently shared a drink with one of the candidates in his home town.

In accepting his new position, the 45-year-old former lawyer said “I will work tirelessly to bring football back to FIFA and FIFA back to football.” 

Written by

John Smith

Married to Ophelia in Gibraltar in 1978, John has spent much of his life travelling on security print and minting business and visited every continent except Antarctica. Having retired several years ago, the couple moved to their house in Estepona and John became a regular news writer for the EWN Media Group taking particular interest in Finance, Gibraltar and Costa del Sol Social Scene. Currently he is acting as Editorial Consultant for the paper helping to shape its future development. Share your story with us by emailing newsdesk@euroweeklynews.com, by calling +34 951 38 61 61 or by messaging our Facebook page www.facebook.com/EuroWeeklyNews

Comments


    • Mike in ESP

      27 February 2016 • 08:51

      I think a lot of people will be happy that Gianni Infantino got this position, he was possibly the better option considering the ‘dubious quality’ of other candidates. I hope that we are not reading more corruption stories in a couple of years, I can’t believe how long this was allowed to go one for.

      Corruption is vile and needs to be gotten rid of where it is, if that is not possible then the whole structure of where that corruption is needs to be dismantled and started again from the ground up with different people and if either of those things cannot be done then people need to withdraw from being involved.

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