By 
The 73rd edition of the FIFA Congress, where a Presidential election is due to take place, has been scheduled for Kigali in Rwanda on March 16 next year.
An election timeline was approved by the FIFA Council at its meeting in March in Doha, where current President Gianni Infantino announced he would stand for re-election.
Infantino, who is an International Olympic Committee member, was first elected as FIFA President in February 2016 in the wake of the corruption scandal which brought down predecessor Sepp Blatter.
The Swiss-Italian then won a second term when he stood unopposed for re-election at the Congress in Paris in 2019.
Infantino has enjoyed particularly strong support from Africa during his Presidency,
This has included the Confederation of African Football (CAF) supporting the idea of a biennial World Cup – something Infantino has now moved to distance himself from – and the CAF publicly backing Infantino when he faced backlash over comment he made suggesting the proposal could help prevent African migrants from finding “death in the sea”.
South African Patrice Motsepe was elected unopposed as the new CAF President at a General Assembly in Rabat last year.
Motsepe’s election followed Presidential candidates Ahmed Yahya from Mauritania, Ivorian Jacques Anouma and Senegal’s Augustin Senghor dropping out of the race – each after meeting with Infantino.
Infantino denied influencing the election, but also claimed to be “delighted that FIFA has been
Infantino currently has no challengers for the Presidency, although his ties with Russia and Saudi Arabia have caused concern in some quarters over whether he is fit to serve as President.
The deadline for candidacies is four months prior to the Congress.
Kigali has already hosted a FIFA Council meeting in October 2018, but its selection as the destination for the Congress will not be without controversy.
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