FIFA looks to turn a fresh leaf under Infantino

FIFA PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2016	Round 1	Round 2
(Q) Gianni Infantino (SUI/ITA)	88	115
Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa (BHR)	85	88
Prince Ali bin al-Hussein (JOR)	27	4
Jérôme Champagne (FRA)	7	-
Tokyo Sexwale (RSA)	w/d	-
TOTAL VOTES	207	207

GIANNI INFANTINO became the most powerful man in world football yesterday after winning the race to elect a new FIFA President in the second round in Zurich.

A Swiss-Italian lawyer by trade, Mr Infantino took a narrow lead over his main rival Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa of Bahrain in the first round.

And the former UEFA general secretary then hoovered up votes which had originally gone to Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan for a decisive victory.

In the grand scheme of things, Mr Infantino's rise to the top of FIFA actually comes as quite a surprise.

He was only backed by his own confederation UEFA after previous candidate Michel Platini was suspended by the FIFA Ethics Committee from all football-related activity in December alongside Sepp Blatter. Blatter, of course, had only just won a fifth successive term as president last May - before resigning four days later following the FBI-backed dawn arrests of several FIFA officials by the Swiss authorities. At first, Blatter avoided being caught in the net himself - but he was then found guilty of making a £1.3m "disloyal payment" to Platini who was also implicated in the deal. In a bizarre twist of fate, Mr Infantino's hometown of Brig is less than six miles away from Visp, from where Blatter hails. But, having been elected on his own merits, it feels only fair to judge him on his own words and actions. On his election, Mr Infantino said: "I want to work with all of you together in order to restore and rebuild a new era of FIFA where we can again put football at the centre of the stage. "FIFA has gone through sad times, moments of crisis, but those times are over. We need to implement the reform and implement good governance and transparency. We also need to have respect. "We're going to win back this respect through hard work, commitment and we're going to make sure we can finally focus on this wonderful game." Seemingly reasonable words from a seemingly reasonable guy - and Mr Infantino, in fairness, was always a far less divisive candidate than his closest rival, Sheikh Salman, who faced a slew of questions over human rights abuses in his own country. The 45-year-old will also surely be helped by several key reforms which were approved in this Extraordinary Congress including a limit to three terms in office for a president. A new council will replace the current executive committee, featuring a female representative from each confederation, and there will be greater transparency about the salaries of FIFA members. But the proof, eventually, will be in the pudding. Indeed, the reputation of FIFA is deservedly so low that it is only natural this latest turn of events has naturally attracted a cynical perspective from some writers. Paul Hayward, in his column for the Telegraph, even argues that welcoming Mr Infantino into the top job "requires ignorance, forgetfulness and hypocrisy". However, a more balanced assessment is made by David Conn in the Guardian. Even then, though, Conn's support for Mr Infantino stems from the fact that he was the best of a poor slate of candidates and that he managed to beat Sheikh Salman. Ultimately, it will be the big calls on which Mr Infantino will be judged. At this late stage, with qualifiers in some confederations having already begun, the 2018 World Cup is unlikely to be moved away from Russia. Mr Infantino must simply therefore hope that the event passes without a major racist or homophobic incident - or too much political interference from Vladimir Putin. However, big questions remain over Qatar 2022 - and then, despite the structural reforms, there are major doubts whether the toxic atmosphere of bribery and secrecy can really be stamped out. Action speaks louder than words, Mr Infantino - and now is the time for action.