FIFA: "Just keep working and letting facts speak for themselves" (G. Infantino)

"FIFA cannot afford to be perceived as an ivory tower, detached from where football actually happens. We must be the converging point of the different facets of the game and, to do so, we must be approachable. We must be present. We must be a human institution. (...) Part of the football community may tend to receive words like these as if they were empty rhetoric, and I can understand that. This is why I do not even think about calling for a celebration. For now we will just keep working and letting facts speak for themselves," stated Gianni Infantino, FIFA president, on 24/02/2017, in an open letter for the first anniversary of his accession to the presidency (on 26/02/2016).

"The next time we look back and see football development thriving worldwide and the trust in FIFA fully restored, only then will we celebrate. And we will be ready to keep on working hard to drive things even further," added the president of the international football federation, at the conclusion of an open letter, which News Tank Football reproduced in full below.