Sheikh Salman signed the deception letter in August, and now he says Asia will back Infantino
The AFC president told the confederation’s congress in Tokyo that Asia is ready to move forward with Infantino, who wants a fourth term at FIFA’s election in Rabat next March.
Oct 23, 2026
Two months ago Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa put his name to a letter that accused FIFA’s leadership of deception. It did not need to name Gianni Infantino. On Friday in Tokyo, with Infantino sitting in the room, the Asian Football Confederation president told his members it was time to move on, and that Asia would back him for a fourth term as FIFA president.
Speaking at the AFC’s extraordinary congress, Sheikh Salman promised Infantino the confederation’s “full commitment” as he seeks a new mandate, and then dealt with the obvious question before anyone could ask it. “Yes, we had some issues, we spoke about them in the past, but let’s not relate the two things together,” he said. “As one Asian family, we are ready to move forward, united in your support, Gianni.”
He added that he had spoken to many of the member associations, and said he knew how they felt. He also admitted that not every one of them would go along with him. Most would, he said.
What the August letter said
The u-turn is a sharp one. In August, Sheikh Salman signed a joint letter with the heads of UEFA and CONCACAF over FIFA Forward Enterprise, the plan to sell a stake in FIFA’s commercial rights, the World Cup included, to private investors. The three confederations wrote of a leader who had broken trust “through deception”, and called the attempt to sell an interest in the World Cup “a profound failure of judgement”. Infantino had announced the plan on 28 July and withdrawn it within days, and the letter made clear that withdrawing it was not the end of the matter.
Infantino returned the warmth on Friday. “You’ve been doing a fantastic job in AFC in the last 13 years, my dear Salman,” he told the delegates. Asked about the endorsement afterwards, he said: “I feel great about the AFC’s support.”
The numbers in Rabat
The election is in Rabat in March, and the vote is one association, one vote. UEFA has 55, Africa 54, Asia 46, CONCACAF 35, Oceania 11 and South America’s CONMEBOL 10, out of 211 in all.
Africa and South America have long been Infantino’s base. Add Asia and those three confederations hold 110 votes between them, which is more than half of the total before anyone counts a single European or North American association. Sheikh Salman cannot deliver all 46, as he said himself, and no vote is cast until March. But the arithmetic has moved a long way towards Infantino in one afternoon.
India’s AIFF is one of those 46 Asian votes.
No challenger yet
Anyone who wants to stand against Infantino has until 18 November to file, and nobody has. Two of the men most often mentioned as possible rivals, CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani and UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, have both let it be known they are not running. If the deadline passes with no other name on the ballot, Infantino could be re-elected unopposed, as he was in 2023.
UEFA has not let the investment plan go. At last week’s FIFA Council meeting in Zurich, Infantino apologised for how the plan was handled and proposed adding more than 3 billion dollars to FIFA’s football development funding. UEFA has since given FIFA until 2 November to release the key documents and answer its questions on governance and decision-making. Asia’s support does not make that deadline go away. What it does is make Europe look a lot more alone.