UEFA puts election on hold till an outcome on Platini’s appeal

A statement from UEFA read: “Following meetings at the House of European Football in Nyon, the UEFA Executive Committee would like to affirm that we unanimously endorse Gianni Infantino’s candidacy for the FIFA presidency”.

UEFA have continued to stand by their fallen President, despite the accusations levelled against Platini, who has also withdrawn his attempt to replace Blatter as head of world football’s governing body. Forty-one individuals, many of them national association presidents, and entities have been indicted in the United States for bribery, money laundering and wire fraud since May.

The use of goalline technology has always been a contentious topic among Uefa executives.

Goal-line technology also got the green light for top level European tournaments starting with this summer’s Euros and next season’s Champions League.

Infantino also said FIFA should “aim in the future” to channel 50 percent of its revenues to member associations.

Collina said that UEFA’s referees committee had concluded its review of GLT and that he believed the technology would allow officials to better focus on monitoring overall activity in the penalty area.

“This manifesto clearly shows that the vision of Gianni Infantino is the FIFA world football needs to start a new era of dynamism and transparency”, he said, according to EFE news agency. “Now we are going to look at how to implement it”.

It gave no reason but an investigation had followed allegations of corruption related to World Cup ticket sales. “But it is not a Uefa diktat or a Uefa decision”, he said, emphasising that he was not a European candidate but a “candidate for football”.

Infantino is competing against Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa of Bahrain, ex-FIFA vice president Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, former FIFA official Jerome Champagne and South African businessman Tokyo Sexwale.