UEFA details FIFA presidential candidate criteria in bid to oust Infantino

UEFA draw up qualities required for candidate to run against FIFA President Gianni Infantino in March’s election. Save Share European football’s governing body UEFA has detailed the kind of president it wants to replace Gianni Infantino with to run FIFA – “a respected and unifying figure, deeply rooted in football”. A candidate who “represents FIFA globally and provides leadership without exercising management functions,” UEFA said on Thursday, after ameeting of its 55 member federationsthat shaped a strategy to find an opponent for Infantino before a November 18 deadline. Exactly who that candidate could be was not discussed on Thursday, though it will not be UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin – and potentially not be European – in the search for global votes among the 211 FIFA-member federations. Ceferin did use the meeting to confirm he will stand for re-election for a fourth and final term next April 22 in Astana, Kazakhstan. Like Ceferin, Infantino was also elected in 2016 and seeks a fourth term through to 2031. Slovenian lawyer Ceferin has led global efforts by football officials since July to oust Infantino from his increasingly executive-style presidency before or at the FIFA election next March 18 in Rabat, Morocco. Infantino’s secretive andquickly defeatedplan tosell stakesin the World Cup and other tournaments to private investors pushed UEFA’s long-held unease with FIFA projects and governance towards running a rival candidate against him. “FIFA also needs new leadership: a respected and unifying figure, deeply rooted in football, with the vision and experience to lead, the ability to command confidence across regions and an unequivocal commitment to development, reform, integrity and independence,” UEFA said in a statement after the daylong meeting in Berlin. UEFA repeated an earlier promise that all of FIFA’s members should receive a one-off $10m dividend from the governing body’s reserves. FIFA’s cash reserves stand at close to $6bn after the lucrative men’s World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Addressing doubts about the integrity of some World Cup decisions by FIFA, the UEFA slate of future changes urged that “appointments and work of FIFA’s oversight bodies are protected from presidential or executive interference”. FIFA’s handling of World Cup red card or player eligibility cases for Cristiano Ronaldo, United States forwardFolarin Balogunand Congo goalkeeper Lionel Mpasi has provoked global concern....