The new boss is one lucky man

GIANNI INFANTINO will wake up to begin his first day’s work as the most important man in world football and could be forgiven for thinking he’s the luckiest man on the planet. Six months ago he had no intention whatsoever of running to replace Sepp Blatter, and was contentedly pottering along as general secretary of UEFA. He only entered the race to keep the seat warm for his continent in case Michel Platini had to withdraw for any reason. Of course Platini wasn’t just forced to withdraw, he was booted out of football for six years for accepting a £1.3million disloyal payment from Blatter. That left Infantino, a multi-lingual family man with a wife from Lebanon and kids, as UEFA’s horse in the race, but still an outsider behind odds-on favourite Sheik Salman of Bahrain.

But in the face of those odds he spent the last two months jetting around the world — on £394,000 of UEFA funding — drumming up support. One key promise to the world’s 209 FAs has been straight from the Blatter playbook. He promised them money, $5m each every four years, a huge increase on the sums they get now — and how well it worked. He will not be short of a few pounds himself now, either. Blatter’s salary, never disclosed, is understood to have been around £5m a year plus lavish expenses. Even in a new era, Infantino can expect a huge pay packet to reflect his new status. A fan of Inter Milan, he will certainly be able to travel in great style to the San Siro whenever he chooses. A Swiss-Italian, Infantino’s home village is Brig in the Swiss canton of Valais. Blatter lives just a few minutes away in Visp.