UEFA details qualities of candidate it wants to challenge Infantino and reform FIFA

BERLIN (AP) — European soccer body UEFA has detailed the kind of president it wants to replace Gianni Infantino running FIFA — “a respected and unifying figure, deeply rooted in football.”

A candidate that “represents FIFA globally and provides leadership without exercising management functions,” UEFA said on Thursday after a meeting of its 55 member federations that shaped a strategy to find an opponent for Infantino before a Nov. 18 deadline.

Exactly who that candidate could be was not discussed on Thursday, though it will not be UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and potentially also not be European.

Ceferin did use the meeting to confirm he will stand for re-election for a fourth and final term next April 22 in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Slovenian lawyer Ceferin has led global efforts by soccer officials since July to oust Infantino from his increasingly executive-style presidency before or at the FIFA election next March 18 in Rabat, Morocco.

Infantino’s secretive and quickly defeated plan to sell stakes in the World Cup and other tournaments to private investors pushed UEFA’s long-held unease with FIFA projects and governance toward running a rival against him.

“FIFA also needs new leadership: a respected and unifying figure, deeply rooted in football, with the vision and experience to lead, the ability to command confidence across regions and an unequivocal commitment to development, reform, integrity and independence,” UEFA said in a statement after the day-long meeting in Berlin.

UEFA repeated an earlier promise that all of FIFA’s 211 member federations should get a one-off $10 million dividend from the governing body’s reserves.

FIFA's cash reserves stand at close to $6 billion after a lucrative men’s World Cup held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

See AP’s full soccer coverage here