Gianni Infantino is the new president of FIFA after securing 115 votes in the second round of Friday’s election in Zurich.
Infantino sprung a surprise by outstripping favourite Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa in the first round by 88 votes to 85.
In round two, candidates required a simple majority of 104 and Infantino comfortably broke through this barrier to become the successor to Sepp Blatter.
Bahrain’s Sheikh Salman took 88 votes second time around, with Prince Ali bin al-Hussein and Jerome Champagne taking four and zero respectively.
“Dear friends, I cannot express my feelings in this moment. I told you I went through a journey, an exceptional journey, a journey which made me meet many fantastic people, many people who love, live, breathe football every day,” Infantino said in his acceptance speech.
“We will restore the image and respect of FIFA. People will applaud us, applaud you for what we will do.
“Everyone has to be proud of what we will do at FIFA. I want to thank you all, all 209 and the other candidates. Tokyo [Sexwale] decided four can win, one cannot win. We had a great competition, [a] great sign of democracy in FIFA.
“I want to be president of all 209 [member federations]. I have travelled the globe and I will continue to do this. I want to work with all of you together in order to restore and rebuild a new FIFA where we can put again football at the centre of the stage.”
Multi-lingual Swiss lawyer Infantino began working at UEFA in 2000 and rose to the position of secretary general in 2009, where he served under president Michel Platini.
Platini’s suspension and subsequent ban from all football-related activity in relation to a payment made by FIFA and signed off by the also barred Blatter in 2011 left the European confederation needing a fresh candidate for the election.
They turned to Infantino hours before October’s election deadline and the 45-year-old, who maintained his support for
Platini’s attempts to clear his name, garnered the support of major football names such as Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho before, crucially, persuading enough national federations to back his reform manifesto.
Having helped to implement the expansion of the European Championship from a 16- to 24-team national tournament, Infantino’s pre-election pledges include a commitment to increasing the number of countries at the World Cup from 32 to 40.
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