In a surprise victory, UEFA's former Secretary General, Gianni Infantino, has been elected President of FIFA.

Infantino defeated a strong challenge from Sheikh Salman after the Bahraini collected 85 votes in the first round of voting, keeping a narrow three vote lead heading into the second round. After the first round of voting, there was a furious amount of conversations and likely vote-dealing as Infantino and Salman looked to increase their totals, needing 104 votes to win. Prince Ali picked up 27 votes in the first round and it was his group hitting the floor hardest.

The man at the center of all those conversations? U.S. Soccer's own Sunil Gulati.

With Prince Ali only picking up four votes in the second round, and Sheikh Salman gaining only three, it's clear that the dealing Gulati and his confederates went towards support for Infantino.

Infantino Promises To Devote Money to Federations

During his speech before the election, Infantino promised to bring transparency to FIFA after police have been dogging it for nearly a year. The part of his speech that got the biggest applause was when he promised to devote 25% of FIFA's budget back to the federations for development of the game. That means facilities, fields, coaching, referee training and even creating teams at the various youth and gender levels. Oh, and 25% of FIFA's budget? Over $1 billion.

Combined with the newly passed reform package, including an Independent Audit & Compliance Committee, it's possible that the game could vastly grow the sport in much needed areas. Making sure that $1 billion goes where it should would do wonders. For those looking for an example, simply look at Trinidad & Tobago's women's national team. With a paltry amount of support and quality coaching, they were a whisker away from qualifying for the World Cup in 2015. If they had the full financial backing from their federation, they could likely see themselves improve greatly over the years rather than the sliding backwards they've done since then.

Whatever changes Infantino wishes to push for, he'll only have a maximum of twelve years to do so. Another reform was a three term, 12-year limit placed upon the president.

Infantino Wins With Little Time to Campaign

Heading into the election, it seemed that Sheikh Salman was thought to be the favorite with strong backing from the Asian Confederation and key federations in Africa and elsewhere. Infantino had only announced his candidacy just before the cut-off date, leaving him little time to campaign. Despite little time to go up against a strong candidate, Infantino was able to collect enough votes behind the European block.

The Swiss is fluent in several languages and used his full verbal skills during his speech and likely while campaigning.

What swung Gulati and the rest of Prince Ali's group to vote for Infantino? Likely a promise of a World Cup coming back to CONCACAF, specifically the U.S. The next tournament to come under vote will be the 2026 tournament during Infantino's reign. If the U.S. is willing to bid for that tournament they would have to be considered strong candidates.

Business number one will be restoring faith in FIFA.

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About the author
Kyle Nowotny
Long-time Houston sports fan, season-ticket holder for the Houston Dynamo and sports writer since August 2014. BA in Creative Writing from the University of Houston.