Infantino set to visit Japan to seek Asian backing for FIFA re-election bid

Gianni Infantino's campaign for re-election as FIFA president is set to move this week to Japan and a meeting scheduled for Wednesday with the Asian Football Confederation.

This comes after Infantino apologized last week in Zurich, Switzerland, to FIFA's 37-member ruling council - which he chairs - for "mistakes" he made in assembling a now-scrapped $4.2 billion sell-off plan for the World Cup.

The council is the main decision-making body at FIFA with a global spread of officials.

The planned meeting with Asian soccer leaders is to be held in a five-star hotel in Tokyo with the media largely excluded.

Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, the president of the AFC, expressed early opposition to Infantino and his plan to create a subsidiary to run the World Cup, but may have moved closer to Infantino, The Athletic has reported.

Infantino has offered to critics an open, independent review of how FIFA makes its decisions.

Infantino is electioneering ================= An Associated