FIFA’s Infantino backed in Colombia where he attends president inauguration

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has received support from several leading South American football figures as he visited Colombia amid the crisis engulfing world football’s governing body.

Infantino arrived early on Friday in the Colombian city of Cali to attend the inauguration ceremony of hard-right President Abelardo de la Espriella.

Photos released by the Colombian Football Federation show a smiling Infantino standing alongside South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) president Alejandro Dominguez and the president of the Colombian federation, Ramon Jesurun.

The visit to Colombia comes as the head of world football has been embroiled in a storm following a much-criticised and ultimately abandoned plan to open the World Cup to private investment.

The 56-year-old Italian-Swiss lawyer, who has been in office since 2016, declined to answer a question from an AFP news agency journalist about whether he considered FIFA’s woes to be over.

Later, while attending a children’s football festival at a sports complex in Cali, he spoke of his “happiness” at being at the event.

“It is a joy to be here today,” the FIFA boss told dozens of children kitted out in football gear.

“Football is joy, football is happiness, football is unity”, he said, adding that “so many champions” were born “in this part of the world, in this part of Colombia”.