Everyone will be proud of what we will do — New FIFA president

“I want to work with you to establish a new era in which we can put football at the centre stage”, Infantino said after the poll.

Infantino is a 45-year-old lawyer from Brig in the Valais region of Switzerland, less than six miles from Blatter’s home town of Visp.

Infantino had won 88 votes in the first round, closely followed by Salman with 85.

Historically, nations from so-called West Asia – the Middle East – have not been Australia’s biggest supporters as members of the Asian football block, and the decision to throw Australia’s initial vote behind the outsider Prince Ali rather than the favoured candidate, Sheikh Salman, will not have pleased many.

UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino was elected as FIFA’s new president on Friday.

The presidential election was just one of 12 items on the Federation Internationale de Football Association agenda.

It was an emotional moment for the new president whose campaign had gained momentum in the last week leading up to the election.

However, addressing a news conference in Zurich on June 2, Blatter said he chose to lay down his mandate at FIFA extraordinary elective Congress. FIFA announced in July that the election of the new president would be held on February 26, 2016.

Blatter praises Infantino’s “experience, expertise, strategic and diplomatic skills” in a statement, the Associated Press reported.

Infantino secured the victory with 115 votes in the second ballot. Then, Joao Havelange of Brazil beat 13-year incumbent Stanley Rous of England 68-52 after an initial 62-56 ballot in Frankfurt, Germany.

In the first round, Infantino surprising led with 88 votes.

Genuinely multi-lingual – he speaks accent-less English, French, Italian, German and Spanish as well as a little Arabic and Portuguese – Infantino used several of the languages in speeches on Friday. “I had this burden on me”, he said, enjoying his first day out of FIFA’s employment since 1975. In his original manifesto, he also promises to include football’s stakeholders more in the work of the football body, to work for more transparency and to expand the number of teams in the World Cup from 32 to 40 teams.

Sheikh Salman, the head of the Asian Football Confederation, was widely tipped by bookmakers to win the vote, but was beaten into second place.

Infantino takes over a wealthy but vulnerable soccer body whose image and confidence has been shattered by escalating scandals.

Earlier, FIFA voted for a series of reforms to curb the president’s powers and stop corruption in world football.