Gianni Infantino elected FIFA president at Zurich congress

On 26 February 2016, delegates at an extraordinary FIFA congress in Zurich elected Gianni Infantino, a Swiss-Italian lawyer and general secretary of UEFA (European football's governing body), as the ninth president of world football's governing body. He succeeded Sepp Blatter, who had led FIFA since 1998.

The vote followed a deep crisis. In May 2015, US and Swiss investigations into bribery led to the arrest of several FIFA officials. Blatter announced his resignation days after being re-elected, and he was later suspended by FIFA's ethics committee. Michel Platini, the UEFA president and favourite to succeed him, was also suspended, which left Infantino to run as UEFA's candidate.

Infantino beat Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa of Bahrain, head of the Asian Football Confederation, in a second round of voting. Prince Ali bin Hussein of Jordan and Jérôme Champagne also stood. Infantino promised to restore FIFA's reputation, and the congress approved reforms that included term limits and greater financial transparency. He has remained in office since, and was re-elected in 2019 and 2023.