Despite strong pressure for him to resign, particularly from UEFA, Gianni Infantino convinced FIFA's Board of Management to express their full support for him following a crisis meeting in Rabat on Wednesday. It was the latest development in a crisis that began with news last week of a FIFA plan to create a subsidiary, FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), to run the men's World Cup and its other events, with a stake of up to 20% to be offered to external investors.
Where did Gianni Infantino come from?
Giovanni Vincenzo Infantino was born on March 23, 1970, in the southwestern Swiss town of Brig to Italian parents. Many years later, as FIFA president, he would speak of the discrimination he said he experienced as he grew up for being of Italian heritage in Switzerland. Infantino studied law at the University of Fribourg, before becoming the general secretary of the International Centre for Sports Studies at the University of Neuchatel in 1997. The independent center had been founded two years earlier by FIFA in partnership with the university and the city and canton of Neuchatel.
What did Infantino do before FIFA?
Infantino, who speaks six languages, first gained notoriety beyond Switzerland after joining UEFA, football's European governing body, in 2000. There, he would climb the corporate ladder to become the organization's general secretary in 2009. Serving under former UEFA President Michel Platini, Infantino's position kept him largely out of the public eye, but during this time his face became a familiar one to European football fans, as one of his roles was hosting the Champions League and Euros draws, broadcast live on TV.
