Gianni Infantino And Sweet Promise After Re-elected As FIFA President

FIFA President, Gianni Infantino. (Photo: Twitter/@affmecup)

JAKARTA - Gianni Infantino was re-elected as FIFA President for the 2023-2027 period. He was elected at the 73rd FIFA Congress which took place in Kigali, Rwanda, Thursday evening WIB.

For the first time in history, the FIFA Congress was held in Africa. The congress was opened by Rwandan President Paul Kagame. In his remarks, Kagame welcomed the delegates from the 208 member associations.

He also congratulated Infantino after the Swiss was re-elected as FIFA President.

Meanwhile, Infantino expressed his gratitude for the support for him to continue to lead the world soccer parent organization. He said, the status as President of FIFA is an extraordinary honor, a great privilege, and also gives a big responsibility.

"I am humbled and touched by your support, and I promise you that I will continue to serve FIFA, serve football around the world, and serve all 211 FIFA member associations," Infantino said as reported by FIFA via Antara.

He emphasized that FIFA's role is to organize competitions and develop football in the world, including Indonesia.

In addition, he mentioned that the 32 participating countries of the women's World Cup which will take place in Australia and New Zealand later this year will get a big increase in prize money to 150 million dollars.

This number is three times the amount compared to when the last women's World Cup was held in 2019, and ten times greater than the 2015 Women's World Cup.

The man from Italy also conveyed changes to the rules for the men's and women's U-17 World Cup which will make the tournament held every year.

As well as the launch of the FIFA World Series and the revision of the World Cup which is currently participating in 32 teams, with the intention to provide more opportunities for teams from each confederation to be able to compete at the global level.

Continuing good organization has also been one of Infantino's key promises, including changing the rules of the transfer system and continuing financial resilience in the football pyramid.

For the next financial cycle, a revenue commitment of $11 billion over the next four years has been set.

That marked a significant increase from the target of 6.4 billion dollars from the previous cycle, and an increase of 7.5 billion dollars in previously reported revenue.