Asian Football Confederation endorses Gianni Infantino at Tokyo congress

The Asian Football Confederation on Friday in Tokyo endorsed Gianni Infantino for another term as Fifa president at its extraordinary congress, with AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa embracing Infantino as he delivered the endorsement.

In August the AFC joined Uefa and Concacaf in saying that Infantino had committed a "fundamental breach of trust" and signed an open letter calling for "leadership that serves football, not seeks to command it." Infantino apologised last week in Zurich to Fifa’s council — which he chairs — for "mistakes" he made in assembling a now-scrapped $4.2bn plan to sell chunks of the World Cup to private investors. The AFC has 47 member associations.

Speaking to the membership, Sheikh Salman said, "We affirm our full commitment to supporting you and your leadership as you seek a new mandate as the Fifa president." He added, "You’ve visited a lot of countries in Asia. I’ve spoken to a lot of members within this continent. I know your feeling and I think your commitment is clear as well."

Sheikh Salman acknowledged that not every AFC member would follow the endorsement, saying, "My feeling is, I’m sure, the feeling of most of my members," he said. "And I’ve said that to you." The move represents an abrupt turnaround for Sheikh Salman after the confederation's earlier public criticism.

The August criticism had been explicit: the AFC joined Uefa and Concacaf in saying Infantino had committed a "fundamental breach of trust" and backed an open letter with the phrase "leadership that serves football, not seeks to command it." Sheikh Salman referenced past differences but downplayed details, saying, "Yes, we had some issues we spoke about in the past," he said. "But let’s not relate the two things together. I think the last few [times] we met in Zurich you made it clear that there’s a true understanding between us."

There were signs before the AFC endorsement that Infantino was edging toward a simple majority of the 211 Fifa member federations. The largest applause at the congress came at the end of Sheikh Salman’s address when he repeated his support, and Infantino then took the podium and conceded some errors: "When you do many things, you do – hopefully, as we did, many good things – you do some mistakes as well," Infantino said.

Infantino drew further applause as he spoke about financial changes, saying, "Before I started as Fifa president, each of you, some of you are still [here] and still remember that time … Each of you was receiving $1m every four years. As of the first of January of next year, it will be $25m."

Nominations for the Fifa presidency close on 18 November and the Fifa election is in March; so far no one is standing against Infantino.