Infantino re-elected as Fifa president

Gianni Infantino has been re-elected as the president of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (Fifa) until 2023.

The 49-year-old Swiss-Italian lawyer, who was picked to lead Fifa out of the crisis that bedevilled the organisation, secured a second term in office, on Wednesday, by acclamation after running unopposed for the sport’s top job.

The soccer governing body took to its Twitter page to announce Infantino’s re-election.

The former Uefa general secretary was first elected president during the 2016 Fifa extraordinary congress on February 26, to complete the term of the “disgraced” Sepp Blatter.

Blatter was forced out of office amid the corruption scandal which plunged Fifa into crisis. He is now serving a six-year ban from all footballing activities for financial misconduct.

During his opening speech to the congress, Infantino had alleged that he had turned Fifa from being “toxic, almost criminal” to “what it should be – an organisation that develops football, an organisation that cares about football”.

“The past three years and four months have certainly not been perfect,” Infantino said.

“I have made mistakes and I will try to improve and do better but today on an election day, nobody talks about crisis. Nobody talks about rebuilding FIFA from scratch.  Nobody talks about scandals.

“Nobody talks about corruption, we talk about football. We can say that we’ve turned the situation around. This organisation has gone from being toxic, almost criminal, to being what it should be – an organisation that develops football and is synonymous with transparency and integrity.

“Today, everything is open and transparent. It is not possible at FIFA to make hidden payments or do anything unethical with our money. There is no more place for corruption.”