Gianni Infantino the UEFA secretary general on Thursday picked up unanimous support for his FIFA presidency bid from the ten members of CONMEBOL, the governing body of South American football. Also on Thursday, Trinidad & Tobago endorsed Infantino. On Monday, the seven federations of Central American football announced their support.
Gianni Infantino has won the support of the seven-member Central American Football Union in his bid for the FIFA presidency. Leaders of the UNCAF federations, which are part of CONCACAF, endorsed the UEFA general secretary in a letter on Monday that Infantino posted on his Twitter page.
Conmebol the South American football confederation rattled by corruption and massive arrests of its former members (except Uruguay's), involved in the major FIFA scandal, has a president, and if nothing happens from here to election day, 26 January, he is Alejandro Domìnguez, (43) a Paraguayan economist, belonging to one of the richest families in the country.
Of the ten presidents from South America's football confederation, Conmebol, during the period under investigation by the FBI, only two had not been indicted until Thursday: Uruguay's Sebastian Bauza and Ecuador's Luis Chriboga. However US Attorney General Loretta Lynch included Chriboga in the latest list of allegedly 16 indictments.
Sixteen more top football officials were charged in a dramatic widening of the FIFA corruption scandal on Thursday, as US prosecutors vowed to leave no stone unturned in their quest to root out graft. Several senior FIFA officials from the past or present were named in a 92-count US Justice Department indictment which came after a series of dawn raids at a luxury hotel in Zurich hosting FIFA officials.
The head of Brazilian football, Marco Polo del Nero, has finally bowed to the pressure and agreed to resign from FIFA's Executive Committee after being a no-show for the last six months amid fears he could be caught up in the burgeoning corruption scandal.
The president of Chile's ANFP national football association Sergio Jadue has gone to the United States to talk to the FBI as part of its ongoing probe into corruption at soccer governing body FIFA, Santiago media reported.
Chile defender Gonzalo Jara will miss the rest of the current Copa America after being suspended for three matches for sticking his finger up an opponent's backside and feigning injury during a match.
The current edition of the Americas Cup, the main football competition of South America organized every four years by the South American Football Confederation, Conmebol, and which this year is being hosted by Chile, apparently does not have the funds to pay for prizes and for the lodging of the twelve national teams involved.
The Argentine Football Association (AFA) issued on Thursday a press release in support of the US led investigation into FIFA and called for transparency in football, adding it joins the efforts to investigate corruption in the sport.