FIFA upholds decision to suspend Sri Lanka and strip voting rights

The world football body FIFA has upheld the decision to suspend Sri Lanka and strip the country of its voting rights.

During the FIFA Congress a total of 197 members voted for the suspension of the Sri Lanka Football Federation, a move which means the country will not have a right to vote.

Gianni Infantino re-elected as president of FIFA until 2027 after standing unopposed at the 73rd congress of world football?s governing body in Kigali on Thursday.

Infantino was first elected to office during the 2016 FIFA Extraordinary Congress in February 2016 and was re-elected in June 2019.

The 52-year-old Swiss Italian lawyer, who succeeded the disgraced Sepp Blatter in 2016, was waved in for a third term by acclamation, just as it was during the previous election four years ago in Paris, France

The German Football Association (DFB) had announced it will not support Infantino?s re-election as FIFA president.

However, President Paul Kagame, who opened the 73rd FIFA congress said in his opening remarks that Infantino deserves to lead the organization based on what he has done to the world of football since assuming office.

Kagame said that the current FIFA President is the right person to continue leading the organization so as to make football a more inclusive and global support sport.

President Kagame stated that he is convinced of the values of leaders and the vision of Giovanni as the right person that FIFA needed to have football play a positive role in society and said that he deserves to lead the organization.

All the FIFA member associations in unison voted for the Swiss ? Italian without opposition.

Meanwhile, the congress also voted 199 votes for the suspension of the Zimbabwe Football Association due to third-party interference (by the government), a decision that was taken by the body on February 24th, 2022, and confirmed on march 31st

The Congress said that since the Zimbabwe federation didn?t fulfill the request to lift the suspension, which violates FIFA statutes, it recommended once again that the suspension be reinstated.

The congress also voted 197 votes for the suspension of the Sri Lanka football federation, a move that means that none of the above countries will have a right to vote nor its membership rights at the congress until Sri Lanka works on lifting the suspension. (Ktpress / Colombo Gazette)