One week today Fifa will have a new president and we can only hope that football will have a new, positive direction. We can hope.
Unlike the last two or three elections where the outcome was a foregone conclusion, this election looks like a very close race. Gianni Infantino has a lot of support in Europe, but not from the whole of Europe. Sheikh Salman thinks he has the support of Asia and Africa, but while he may have the majority of the associations on his side there are a few who have publicly said they will not vote for him and rumours of a few others not being on his side. Prince Ali appears to be picking up the "other" votes in Europe, Asia and Africa. The South American countries say they are all voting for Infantino. But amongst the CONCACAF countries (North, Central American and the Caribbean) there doesn't seem to be a consensus. A group of 7 Central American countries have pledged their support for Infantino, but the CONCACAF Executive Committee has said they will not issue instructions to back one candidate.
This is where the election could be won or lost. The two biggest countries, the U.S. and Canada have not yet announced who their vote will go to. They were both firmly behind Prince Ali in last year’s election. However, when you read through the reports from last May it's more about them being opposed to Sepp Blatter. So without the unwanted one in this election will they still be supportive of Prince Ali. It must be either him or Infantino. It would be inconceivable that either country could vote for Sheikh Salman.
After getting an answer from the Maltese FA president I think I need to get an answer out of the Canadians and Americans. Watch this space.
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