FIFA chief Infantino gets backing of South American football

CALI, Colombia: FIFA president Gianni Infantino on Friday received support from several leading South American football figures as he visited Colombia amidst the crisis engulfing world football’s governing body.

Infantino arrived early on Friday in the Colombian city of Cali to attend hard-right president Abelardo de la Espriella’s inauguration.

Photos released by the Colombian Football Federation show a smiling Infantino standing alongside South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) president Alejandro Dominguez and the president of the Colombian federation, Ramon Jesurun.

The visit to Colombia comes as the head of world football has been embroiled in a storm following a much-criticized and ultimately abandoned plan to open the World Cup to private investment.

The 56-year-old Italian-Swiss lawyer, who has been in office since 2016, declined to answer a question from an AFP journalist about whether he considered FIFA’s woes to be over.

Later, while attending a children’s soccer festival at a sports complex in Cali, he spoke of his “happiness” at being at the event.

“It is a joy to be here today,” the FIFA boss told dozens of children kitted out in football gear at an event in the southwestern city.

“Football is joy, football is happiness, football is unity,” he said, adding that “so many champions” were born “in this part of the world, in this part of Colombia.”

‘Not necessary to always agree’ 

Infantino, who will seek a fourth and final term in the presidential election in Rabat next March, is facing criticism, notably from European body UEFA, which on Thursday maintained its threat to boycott the World Cup despite FIFA’s withdrawal of the private investment proposal.

CONMEBOL, which has only 10