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Infantino Re-elected FIFA President Unopposed, Promising Greater Revenues

In this file photo taken on October 22, 2022 Gianni Infantino, president of football's world governing body FIFA, attends a press conference following the FIFA Council meeting in Auckland. (AFP)
In this file photo taken on October 22, 2022 Gianni Infantino, president of football's world governing body FIFA, attends a press conference following the FIFA Council meeting in Auckland. (AFP)
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Infantino Re-elected FIFA President Unopposed, Promising Greater Revenues

In this file photo taken on October 22, 2022 Gianni Infantino, president of football's world governing body FIFA, attends a press conference following the FIFA Council meeting in Auckland. (AFP)
In this file photo taken on October 22, 2022 Gianni Infantino, president of football's world governing body FIFA, attends a press conference following the FIFA Council meeting in Auckland. (AFP)

Gianni Infantino was re-elected as FIFA president during the 73rd Congress in Kigali on Thursday, promising record revenues in the next four-year cycle of $11 billion as he called for more football to be played around the world.

Infantino stood unopposed, making his re-election as head of football's governing body a formality, even if he is not universally popular among member associations for a range of reasons, including pushing for a failed plan to play the World Cup every two years.

"It is an incredible honour and privilege, and a great responsibility," Infantino said. "I promise to continue serving FIFA and football around the world.

"To those that love me, and I know there are many, and those who hate me ... I love you all."

Infantino confirmed FIFA’s income hit record levels in the last cycle from 2019-22, but promised to substantially raise this again on the back of expanded men’s and women’s World Cup tournaments and the introduction of a 32-team Club World Cup.

"Revenues rose to a record $7.5 billion (to 2022) in a period that was hit by COVID-19. When I arrived, FIFA reserves stood at around $1 billion, today they are at almost $4 billion," Infantino said.

"We promise new record revenues for the next cycle of $11 billion, and the new Club World Cup is not included in that figure, so it could increase by a couple of billion (more)."

Infantino said FIFA would continue to revue the transfer system to "improve transparency" and suggested the organisation might discuss a salary cap.

"We must improve our regulations and the FIFA statues. We will continue to evolve our good governance principles and look at the transfer system, and maybe have a discussion to improve transparency of transfer fees and salaries.

"It might be necessary to introduce a cap, we have to think how we can do that. We will look at it with all stakeholders and see what we can do."

Infantino was first elected in an Extraordinary Congress in 2016 following the resignation of his predecessor Sepp Blatter, and retained his position unopposed three years later.

But this counts as his second term of office and he will therefore be available for a third and final term in four years' time.

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Gauff is Disappointed by her Wimbledon Loss but Doesn't Want to Dwell on it

Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain - July 1, 2025 Coco Gauff of the US leaves the court dejected after losing her first round match against Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq
Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain - July 1, 2025 Coco Gauff of the US leaves the court dejected after losing her first round match against Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq
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Gauff is Disappointed by her Wimbledon Loss but Doesn't Want to Dwell on it

Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain - July 1, 2025 Coco Gauff of the US leaves the court dejected after losing her first round match against Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq
Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, Britain - July 1, 2025 Coco Gauff of the US leaves the court dejected after losing her first round match against Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq

Before Wimbledon began, Coco Gauff reflected on the significance of her breakthrough performance at the place six years ago — a run to the fourth round at age 15 — and what aspirations she harbored as she prepared to return.

“Even when I see videos of me during that time, it just doesn’t feel like it’s me. It felt like a dream. I’ll always have special memories from that run and, I guess, it definitely fueled the belief that I can be on tour and live out my dream,” she told The Associated Press.

“It’s something that always holds a special place in my heart. Obviously, I would love to win this tournament just for it to be like a full-circle moment,” she continued. “I feel like it would be like the start of the dream, and — I don’t want to say ‘the finish,’ because I obviously have a lot of career left, but — a full-circle type of situation.”

A week after that conversation, the No. 2-ranked Gauff was out of the bracket at the All England Club in the first round with a 7-6 (3), 6-1 loss to unseeded Dayana Yastremska at No. 1 Court on Tuesday night. Gauff was undone by serving troubles, including nine double-faults, and more than two dozen unforced errors in all, not to mention Yastremska's hard, flat groundstrokes.

It was an abrupt, and mistake-filled, exit for Gauff, who so recently earned her second Grand Slam title — at the French Open via a three-set victory over No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the final.

After Tuesday's defeat, Gauff said, “I definitely was struggling in the locker room. I don’t like losing. The main thing I’m sure my team and everyone is going to tell me (is): 'You did well at Roland-Garros. Don't be so upset.' Things like that.”

But as much as she'll want to move on and focus on what's to come, the 21-year-old American acknowledged as she dabbed away the tears welling in her eyes during her news conference that she felt “a little bit disappointed in how I showed up today.”

It's instructive to remember — setting aside that captivating 2019 debut, which featured a victory over Venus Williams — that Wimbledon's grass courts actually have produced Gauff's least successful Grand Slam results.

Yastremska's take? She said she considers Gauff “much better on clay court and hard court than on grass.”

This was the second time in the past three years that she was sent home in the opening round. She's never been past the fourth round at the All England Club, whereas at every other major tournament, including the hard-court Australian Open, she's at least reached the semifinals.

Her first Slam trophy arrived on the hard courts of the US Open in 2023 when she was 19. She already was the 2022 runner-up on the red clay at the French Open before going one step better this time.

Sabalenka's self-described “unprofessional” comments after last month's title match in Paris became a real topic of conversation and, perhaps, a distraction. Gauff and Sabalenka sought to put it behind them — and tell fans they should, too — by filming TikTok videos together once they got to Wimbledon.

“I was a little bit overwhelmed with everything that came afterwards,” Gauff said, “so I didn’t feel like I had enough time to celebrate and also get back into it.”

It's not easy to manage the tricky transition from the Roland-Garros clay to the Wimbledon grass. There's a reason it's been a decade since a woman won both in the same season — and a reason that woman was Serena Williams.

By the end of the night, Gauff was eager to look ahead to the upcoming North American hard-court circuit, culminating with a trip to New York in late August.

“I mean, obviously I’m not going to dwell on this too long, because I want to do well at the US Open. Maybe losing here (in the) first round isn’t the worst thing in the world,” she said, “because I have time to reset.”