The German FA (DFB) confirmed yesterday they will back UEFA’s general secretary Gianni Infantino in his bid to become the president of world football’s governing body FIFA next month.
“Gianni Infantino is the candidate for Europe and is the best candidate as far as Rainer Koch and the leadership of the association is concerned,” said DFB co-president Reinhard Rauball, who shares the role with Koch, in Frankfurt.
“Through his job as general secretary of UEFA, he knows all facets of football, is very well networked internationally and speaks six languages. With his reputation and experience, he has the necessary qualifications in order to address the structural changes and challenges ahead (at FIFA).
“As well as a change of personnel at the top, reform efforts must be systematically implemented to ensure the credibility and confidence in FIFA is restored in the long term.”
On Tuesday, Infantino had stepped up campaigning for next month’s FIFA election by promising a bigger World Cup, reforms to scandal-tainted FIFA to create a “credible” global governing body and more money for member nations in his manifesto for the February 26 vote for a new leader.
The Swiss official, who has been right-hand man to suspended UEFA leader Michel Platini for the past seven years, said the World Cup should be expanded to 40 countries from the 32 for the 2018 event in Russia.
In the election, Infantino, 45, is up against Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa of Bahrain, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, a former FIFA vice president from Jordan, South African business tycoon Tokyo Sexwale and former FIFA official Jerome Champagne of France.
Platini and FIFA president Sepp Blatter were banned from football activities for eight years last month opening up the election battle when Platini withdrew.
All five candidates have promised to clean up the world body in the wake of the Blatter-Platini investigation and a US inquiry which has left 39 individuals and two companies facing charges over bribes for football deals.
Infantino has proposed a new FIFA Council for key decisions, 12-year term limits for officials including the president and more “independent voices” on key FIFA committees. He also wants FIFA to name a chief compliance officer and to establish a fully open tendering process for the body’s multi-billion dollar deals.

Iraq boost for Prince Ali
The Iraq Football Association (IFA) have pledged their support for Prince Ali Bin al-Hussein in next month’s FIFA presidential election, the Jordanian royal said yesterday.
“The FA has endorsed Prince Ali in a letter to FIFA,” IFA president Abdul Khaliq Masood said in a statement published by Ali’s bid team. “We have decided that Iraq’s vote will go to Prince Ali because Prince Ali has always supported the development of football in Iraq, Jordan and our region.”
Ali hosted a delegation from Iraq including Masood and Iraq Minister of Sports and Youth Abdul Hussein Abtan on Monday as he attempts to drum up support ahead of the election to decide who will succeed Sepp Blatter as president of the scandal-hit body.
Blatter, who beat Ali in the most recent FIFA presidential election last May, and UEFA President Michel Platini were both handed eight-year bans from football last month for ethics violations.
Both deny any wrongdoing but their absence has left the global game leaderless as it tries to dig itself out of a slew of corruption cases, with criminal investigations under way in the United States and Switzerland.
Ali returned to Jordan at the start of the week to meet the Iraqi delegation after campaigning in Africa and the Caribbean, where his team said he “picked up private commitments of support from several other nations”.
Rival Infantino said previously he had major support in the Caribbean region, which has 25 votes in the 209-member election being held in Zurich. Salman is expected to win the bulk of support among the AFC’s 46 members after the regional body’s executive committee passed a resolution in November urging all Asian representatives to vote for the Bahraini.
Abtan, though, told Iraqi state television that his country would back Ali. “We are very pleased to support Prince Ali. He is the best man for the job. We greatly appreciate everything Jordan has done to support Iraqi sports and youth over the years,” he told Iraq state television.
Ali said he had held discussions with Abtan and Masood over the lifting of a ban that prevents Iraq from hosting home international matches.