FIFA: "Good luck, my friend Gianni, but I am not worried, I know you will succeed" (Joseph Blatter)

"At 18:01 on Friday (26/02/2016), when you were elected, a great weight was lifted from my shoulders. I am no longer president (of FIFA). But I willingly accept the French ideal that, once you have been president, you remain president forever! Voila, good luck, my friend Gianni, but I am not worried, I know you will succeed," wrote Joseph Blatter, former FIFA president, in a letter to Gianni Infantino published by the Journal du Dimanche on 28/02/2016.

Gianni Infantino (Italy-Switzerland) was elected FIFA president for three years (2016-2019) at the end of the second round of the voting, during the Extraordinary Electoral Congress of the international federation in Zurich (Switzerland) on 26/02/2016. He received 115 votes out of 207 votes cast (55.5%), compared to 88 votes (42.5%) for Sheikh Salman (Bahrain), 4 (2%) for Prince Ali (Jordan) and 0 for Jérôme Champagne (France). The ninth president in the history of FIFA, Gianni Infantino succeeds Joseph Blatter (Switzerland), who held the position from 1998 to 2016. Both of them were born in the canton of Valais, in southern…