Why the ÖFB voted for Infantino in the FIFA election

Despite massive criticism surrounding the Qatar World Cup, Gianni Infantino will almost certainly be re-elected as FIFA President. There will be no reminder election for the Swiss, who has been in office since 2016. Infantino enjoys a high approval rating among the 211 national associations that elect their leader as FIFA members.

The continental federations of Africa (54 national federations), Asia (46), Oceania (11) and South America (10) have already collectively announced their support for Infantino. The support from large parts of Europe (55) and from the region of North and Central America and the Caribbean (35) is just as certain for the soon to be 53-year-old. Even if the core countries of football from Europe and South America had agreed on an opponent, they would not have a majority at the congress. Every association has one vote, no matter how big or small.

Financial arguments

Infantino has been courting the favor of the small countries for many years – mostly with financial arguments. Of the more than seven billion US dollars that FIFA has taken in the past four years, around 2.5 billion have ended up with the associations, according to official figures. These cover running costs and drive infrastructure projects forward.

Equally important is what Infantino’s association bosses saw. The successor to Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, who stumbled over a corruption scandal, started with the promise: “FIFA’s money is your money, you are the national associations”. Since then he has presented continuous increases in income. The pie will get even bigger thanks to the Mega World Cup 2026 in USA, Mexico and Canada with 48 teams in 104-game mode. For the World Cup cycle from 2023 to 2026, revenue of eleven billion US dollars had previously been calculated.

Miniature states like the small Caribbean island of Aruba are happy to have a snack. Aruba, 110,000 inhabitants, 28 football clubs, is represented by Egbert Lacle. And Lacle is happy with the FIFA collaboration. “They understand us and sit down with us. And then they offer help,” the association president of the country off the coast of Venezuela said recently to “Deutschlandfunk”. In the absence of a proper football market, FIFA is the association’s main source of income. “We are 90 per cent dependent on FIFA funds,” said Lacle.

ÖFB leaves the opposition role to others

The Austrian Football Association (ÖFB) will also vote for Infantino. Interim President Johann Gartner, who is in Rwanda together with Secretary General Thomas Hollerer, justified this with the effort to find “joint solutions”. “The fact is that Gianni Infantino is the only candidate for the office of FIFA President, and he is therefore also supported by the ÖFB,” said Gartner Man wanting to offer constructive criticism. The opposition role is left to others.

Such as the German Football Association, which announced on Wednesday that it would not support Infantino. “In the past few weeks, we have received no or only insufficient information from FIFA on various issues,” said DFB President Bernd Neuendorf, according to a statement. FIFA must “become much more open and transparent in dealing with the national associations. In its own interest, it should explain how and why certain decisions are made and who was involved in them. That has not always been the case recently.”

Norway, with President Lise Klaveness at the helm, and Sweden had previously announced that they would not vote for Infantino. “We think he missed a lot of opportunities to really make the changes he was elected to make,” said the 41-year-old.

England is on the side of UEFA

According to media reports, England’s association (FA) is demanding that Infantino discard his concepts of a world cup that takes place every two years. The FA is thus acting in the interests of UEFA, because a distribution battle between FIFA on the one hand and Europe’s association on the other has been raging in the background for some time. Pimped Club World Cup, worldwide Nations League, a World Cup every two years are the not always ready-to-go projects that have recently been circulated by the world association.

UEFA and Europe’s national leagues fear for their territory when it comes to premium products outside of the current World Cup, which takes place every four years. “I have to say that we are now working together, even if we hardly communicate with each other,” said UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin on ZDF about the employment relationship with Infantino. However, you don’t have to talk to each other that much. “As long as we don’t overlap in terms of content, it’s okay. If it’s not about European interests, I don’t argue with him,” said the Slovenian.

At least in Rwanda, Infantino knows that most of the delegations are behind him. If he does not get the necessary two-thirds majority right away, a simple majority will suffice for a further four years from the second ballot. The FIFA Presidency is limited to three terms. Because according to the statutes he was only elected to his first term in office in the summer of 2019, an Infantino era is possible until 2031.

Infantino knows nothing about wiretaps

At the same time, Infantino keeps law enforcement busy. It’s about secret meetings between the now deposed Swiss federal prosecutor Michael Lauber and Infantino. According to research by “NZZ am Sonntag”, one of these was wiretapped in Bern in 2017 on behalf of Qatar. The “Meeting Room III” of the five-star hotel “Schweizerhof” is said to have been bugged. Since 2009, the hotel has been owned by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. What was discussed there, just a few steps from the Qatari embassy, ​​is so far unclear. The meeting is problematic because Lauber was investigating FIFA officials in relation to the World Cup award to Qatar. Qatar denies the wiretapping. Infantino has no knowledge of “any secret surveillance actions,” said a lawyer for the FIFA boss.