Europe’s big guns give Fifa backing to Uefa’s Infantino

PARIS: Europe’s biggest football clubs had given their support to Uefa interim chief Gianni Infantino’s Fifa presidential campaign, the European Club Association (ECA) said yesterday.

ECA vice-chairman Umberto Gandini announced the decision at a news conference during the general assembly of the umbrella organisation, which represents more than 200 clubs including the major ones such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and Bayern Munich.

“We know Gianni very well. He has been instrumental in the creation of the relationship between Uefa and the ECA,” Gandini said.

“We see his candidacy as a nice opportunity for him that hopefully will benefit football worldwide.

“He has the skills to perform very well,” he added before this month’s vote at the scandal-plagued world governing body.

The independent ECA, which replaced the G-14 group of leading clubs in 2008, has two representatives on the Uefa executive committee but has no direct role in the presidential voting, which is conducted by Fifa’s 209 members.

Other candidates in the election are Bahrain’s Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al Khalifa, ex-FIfa vice-president Prince Ali bin al Hussein, former Fifa deputy general secretary Jerome Champagne and South African Tokyo Sexwale.

Infantino and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) chief Salman are the front-runners to win the February 26 vote at Fifa, which has been embroiled in a huge corruption scandal with 41 people and entities indicted by the US Department of Justice.

Backing

Salman has the backing of his own AFC and the Confederation of African Football (CAF), while Swiss Infantino has the support of his European organisation along with the 10-member South American confederation Conmebol.

The ECA promotes its members’ interests on European club matters, and aims to maintain a high level of involvement in the decisionmaking of the game’s governing bodies. – Reuters