Infantino cannot count on Africa’s 54 FIFA votes despite public backing

African football’s apparent support for FIFA president Gianni Infantino may not translate into a united voting bloc at next year’s election in Morocco, despite the Confederation of African Football (CAF) publicly backing his bid to remain in office.

CAF has positioned itself against three confederations demanding greater clarity over Infantino’s controversial plan to sell a share of the commercial rights to future FIFA World Cup competitions, according to Reuters. However, there is no guarantee that all 54 African member associations will follow the organisation’s official position when voting takes place on 17 March.

Infantino remains highly popular in Africa, having increased FIFA’s financial grants to member associations during his decade in charge. Even so, a collective vote from the continent is considered far from certain, with African football’s past record showing that national associations have often ignored or broken with the position of their regional leadership.

Africa accounts for about a quarter of FIFA’s votes, but its federations have repeatedly declined to follow CAF’s preferred candidate in presidential elections.

In 1998, CAF backed European candidate Lennart Johansson, yet most African associations voted overwhelmingly for his rival, Sepp Blatter.

Four years later, when then-CAF president Issa Hayatou challenged Blatter for the FIFA presidency, a majority of African countries again supported the Swiss administrator, helping him secure a decisive second term.

The pattern was repeated in 2016. Although CAF endorsed Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, a significant number of African votes helped Infantino win in the second round.

The continent’s voting history was also evident in the contest to host the 2026 World Cup. Despite CAF’s support for Morocco, 11 African countries voted for the joint bid from the United States, Canada and Mexico, during a period of tension surrounding Western Sahara.

At present, African backing for Infantino appears strong on the surface, but interviews conducted by Reuters with African football leaders suggest it could disappear quickly if opposition from Europe, Asia and North America becomes more serious.

All African associations sent messages of support to Infantino during the FIFA Congress in Vancouver in April. That support was expressed before details emerged of his plan to sell a stake in the commercial rights to future World Cup tournaments, a proposal that provoked anger from UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation and Concacaf.

Several African federation presidents have expressed surprise at the scale of the reaction against Infantino. Some have chosen to remain silent while waiting to see whether a credible challenger emerges before the deadline for nominations on 18 November.

Despite that uncertainty, Egypt, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger and the Democratic Republic of the Congo publicly declared their support for Infantino last week.

Mathurin de Chacus, president of the Benin Football Federation and a member of the CAF executive committee, said: “I see no reason not to support him.”

Alexander Muyinge of Burundi said: “He is a president who does everything necessary to support Africa, especially the less wealthy countries. His record is full of achievements, so it makes sense to support him.”

Any candidate seeking the FIFA presidency must win a simple majority of 106 votes from the organisation’s 211 member associations. Infantino was elected unopposed in 2019 and 2023.