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'Humbled and honoured’ FIFA President thanks members after more than 200 offer support and re-election is confirmed

FIFA

  • Gianni Infantino thanks more than 200 Member Associations for their backing
  • A second full-term will be confirmed at the 73rd FIFA Congress in Kigali, Rwanda on 16 March 2023
  • Mr. Infantino was speaking at the Generation Amazing Youth Festival in Doha, Qatar

Gianni Infantino has thanked the more than 200 Members Associations who have officially offered their backing for another term as FIFA President after it was confirmed the elective FIFA Congress in Kigali, Rwanda, will be uncontested.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the deadline for candidates to confirm their intention to run had passed, the FIFA President thanked those from every corner of the world, who had offered their support for another four years as the head of global football’s governing body.

“I would like simply, because again, it’s the first time I speak publicly today, to put on record my big thanks for the over 200 Member Associations of FIFA, all the six confederations who have supported me,” the FIFA President said. “I feel humbled and honoured to be able to serve the global football community for the next four years.”

President Infantino was speaking at the Generation Amazing Youth Festival in Oxygen Park, three days before the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ begins.

The festival, an annual event organised by Generation Amazing, includes in-person workshops that explore topics such as sport diplomacy, sustainability, diversity and inclusion, leadership, mental health, and more.

The FIFA President used the occasion of the Generation Amazing Youth Festival to praise the work of the programme over the 12 years it has been in operation – on the same day it was confirmed by Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy Secretary General, Hassan Al Thawadi, that it would become a Foundation – thereby enabling it to continue its work around the world long after the trophy is lifted on 18 December.

“Football, of course, unites all the world - and that’s what Generation Amazing is doing as well,” President Infantino continued. “Projects like Generation Amazing are exactly the kind of projects we want to see all over the world, take from Qatar to the entire world and see also in the future. Because you are all Generation Amazing.”

The FIFA President also thanked the country’s organisers, for readying Qatar to host the 22nd edition of football’s most iconic tournament, which kicks off when Qatar takes on Ecuador at Al Bayt Stadium on 20 November.

“Qatar promised us that they would deliver amazing. Again, I want to put on record my, not only thanks - I did that already several times, it goes without saying - but also my congratulations to his Highness, the Amir, and to the whole of Qatar for putting up such an amazing FIFA World Cup.”