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 "We will restore the image of FIFA and the respect of FIFA, and
everyone in the world will be proud of us," the 45-year-old law
graduate, who for the last seven years has been the leading
administrator for Europe's governing body, told an extraordinary
FIFA Congress in Zurich.
"I feel a lot of emotion and have not realized yet what has happened
today."
After a first round of voting in which he narrowly beat Asian
Football Confederation President Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al
Khalifa of Bahrain, Infantino appeared to gather up almost all the
votes that had been cast for the two trailing candidates, Prince Ali
and Jerome Champagne.
He won 115 of the 207 votes in the second round, giving him a simple
majority ensuring a European again holds the top job until 2019 and
frustrating the hopes of those looking for a swing to Asia.
Infantino owed his candidacy to the fact that Europe's preferred
candidate, his former boss and UEFA president Michel Platini, was
banned from soccer last year along with Blatter for ethics
violations.
"I thank Michel Platini for everything that he has taught me and
given me and the work we have done together," Infantino said. "I
have strong, dear thoughts for Mr Michel Platini right now."
Only the ninth president in FIFA's 112-year history, he inherits a
very different job from that enjoyed by Blatter, who toured the
world for 17 years like a head of state, dispensing development
funds to his global support base.
Before the election, the Congress had overwhelmingly passed a set of
reforms intended to make FIFA more transparent, professional and
accountable.
That package should mean the new president faces much closer
scrutiny than Blatter did -- his salary will be published for the
first time -- and have less influence over the day-to-day management
of the organization's business affairs.
NEW GOVERNANCE
The reforms include term limits for top officials and a clear
separation between an elected FIFA Council responsible for broad
strategy and a professional general secretariat, akin to a company's
executive board, handling the business side.
Infantino's campaign did not at first glance mark a dramatic change
from the naked financial appeals of past elections as he promised
member federations more money in his quest for support, and an
expansion of the World Cup finals to 40 teams from 32.
But unlike most of the other candidates, Infantino can point to the
fact that he never served under Blatter in FIFA's tainted
leadership, having worked for UEFA since 2000.
Sheikh Salman, the bookmakers' favorite, had been on FIFA's
executive since 2013, and had had to repeatedly deny allegations
from rights groups that he had been involved in or known about the
detention and torture of Bahraini players in 2011 at the height of a
crackdown on anti-government protests.
Following Blatter's 17-year reign, Infantino's election maintains
Europe's stranglehold on the running of world soccer, and the
continent's officials were quick to welcome the result.
"It is the first time in a long time that I have felt happy about
anything to do with FIFA," said Executive Committee member Michel
D'Hooghe of Belgium. "(Infantino) is a young, dynamic man who has
done a superb job at UEFA."
UEFA executive committee member Karen Espelund of Norway said: "We
needed someone credible, we needed a clean winner, a clean man, and
I believe we have that in Gianni."
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Blatter too welcomed the appointment but was still trying to take a
share of the glory despite a day of speeches from candidates
promising to clear up the mess of his watch.
"Gianni Infantino will now have to take over what I started, the
last remaining points of the big reform package," Blatter said.
"The new president cannot cherry-pick now what he likes and what he
doesn’t like, that’s quite a task awaiting him."
COMMERCIAL ACUMEN
Much of Infantino's pitch centred on his commercial acumen; during
his seven years as UEFA general secretary, revenue from Europe's
club competitions has grown dramatically, but so has inequality
between the rich, powerful elite clubs in Europe's four big leagues
and the rest.
Many of the skills now required will, however, be in crisis
management.
Infantino will hope for at least a brief honeymoon after the
firestorm that broke out last May when seven soccer executives due
to attend a previous Congress were arrested on suspicion of
corruption in a dawn raid on their Zurich hotel.
Blatter survived long enough to win re-election at that Congress,
but stepped down four days later as the scandals took their toll.
Since then, criminal investigations in the United States and
Switzerland have resulted in the indictment of dozens of soccer
officials and other entities for corruption, many of them serving or
former presidents of national or continental associations.
In addition, FIFA has been forced to investigate controversies
surrounding the awarding of its showpiece, the World Cup finals,
especially the decision to grant the 2018 tournament to Russia and
the 2022 finals to Qatar, a small, scorching desert state with
little soccer tradition.
Swiss authorities are reviewing more than 150 reports of suspicious
financial activity linked to those awards, and said on Thursday they
had sent more documents including an internal FIFA report to U.S.
investigators.
Many key sponsorship deals have been put on hold until FIFA can be
seen to have cleaned up its act, resulting in a $108 million deficit
for 2015, an official said on Thursday.
Infantino welcomed that challenge.
"I will work tirelessly to bring football back to FIFA and FIFA back
to football, this is what we want to do," he said in his first news
conference as president.
"I am not a candidate of Europe I am a candidate of football and
football is universal."
(Additional reporting by Mike Collett, Brian Homewood and Joshua
Franklin; Writing by Kevin Liffey/Mitch Phillips; Editing by Ralph
Boulton)
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