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PARIS — Gianni Infantino, the 49-year-old lawyer who was picked to lead FIFA out of the biggest crisis in the soccer governing body’s history, secured a second term in office by acclamation on Wednesday after running unopposed for the sport’s top job.
A statute change announced this week meant delegates from soccer’s 211 national governing bodies did not have to take a vote at the FIFA Congress in Paris to show their support for the Swiss-born Infantino as he sought a full four-year term.
His rise to the top came after a major corruption scandal removed a generation of the sport’s top leaders in 2015, including his longtime predecessor, Sepp Blatter, and Infantino’s former boss, Michel Platini, a former French soccer great who was head of the European governing body and who had seemed destined to take the global role.