Gianni Infantino has received a boost toward retaining the FIFA presidency after the entire CONMEBOL council threw their weight behind him for another four-year term, making the South American football confederation the first to publicly declare support for his re-election.
The football administrator, who turned 56 this year, has not yet formally announced his intention to stand again.
But reports indicate that few inside football’s corridors of power expect anything different, given how thoroughly he has remoulded the global game’s governing body around his leadership over the past decade.
Infantino has never had to fight hard to keep his position. He was returned unopposed in both 2019 and 2023, and the backing of Conmebol, which governs football across ten South American nations, including Brazil and Argentina, signals that the path to another term is already being cleared.
Conmebol’s move is notable because South America has not always been the most accommodating region for FIFA’s leadership. Yet under Infantino, the relationship has warmed considerably.
The expanded Club World Cup, which handed South American clubs greater prize money and global exposure, played a part in that.
So did the continued growth of FIFA’s distribution funds to member associations across the continent.
Infantino has spent a decade building exactly this kind of loyalty across football’s confederations, and Conmebol’s making the first public declaration is less a surprise than a signal to other regions that the queue is forming. UEFA, CAF, AFC and others will now face questions about where they stand.
Whether a credible challenger emerges before the election remains the only real question hanging over this race. For now, nothing points in that direction.
