Africa backs Infantino for FIFA re-election next year
SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt FIFA voters in Africa have backed Gianni Infantino to be re-elected as president, and also Sunday chose an official from Malawi to represent them on the world soccer body’s ruling council.
The decisions were made by 54 African soccer federations — more than one-quarter of the FIFA membership — at a special election meeting provoked by the resignation of a Ghanaian official who was implicated in taking cash bribes.
The disgraced former FIFA Council member, Kwesi Nyantakyi, was replaced by Walter Nyamilandu, a former international player and longtime president of Malawi’s soccer federation.
Nyamilandu won a 35-18 vote in a runoff against Danny Jordaan of South Africa, the head organizer of the 2010 World Cup, to fill Africa’s seventh and final seat on the 37-member FIFA strategic panel chaired by Infantino. Its next meeting is in Africa, on Oct. 26 in Kigali, Rwanda.
