Infantino wins FIFA backing from English FA
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Berlin - UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino has won the backing of the English Football Association (FA) to become the next president of world football governing body FIFA.
"The FA Board has on Wednesday formally supported Gianni Infantino for the office of FIFA president ahead of next week's election in Zurich," the FA said in a statement.
Infantino, who welcomed the statement with a brief twitter post, is one of five candidates to succeed Joseph Blatter at the February 26 elections at an extraordinary FIFA congress where 105 votes are needed from the 209 FIFA members.
The others are Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh SalmanBin Ebrahim Al Khalifa of Bahrain, Frenchman Jerome Champagne, Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan and South African Tokyo Sexwale.
"We did what we promised we would, I spoke to every candidate either in person or on the phone," FA chairman Greg Dyke said.
"We were impressed by Gianni. We were also impressed by Prince Alibut in the end we decided to go with the UEFA candidate."
- DPA
