The President of the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF), Fernando Gomes, was elected with unanimous acclamation by the FIFA Council at the 47th UEFA Congress in Lisbon on Wednesday.
Fernando Gomes, 71, was the only candidate for the four-year term at the meeting in the Portuguese capital after Noël Le Graët stepped down as president of the French Football Federation (FFF).
The Portuguese has already served two terms of two years each on FIFA’s executive body, the last until 2019, without having served again in 2021, despite remaining an executive member of UEFA.
Gomes’ return to FIFA coincides with Portugal’s ‘race’, along with Spain, Ukraine and Morocco, to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup.
Also ‘running alone’, German Bernd Neuendorf was chosen for the two-year vacancy on the FIFA Council.
In the election for FIFA’s European Vice-Presidencies, Hungary’s Sándor Csányi, holder of the post, was re-elected to the detriment of Finland’s Ari Lahti, while England’s Debbie Hewitt became the first woman to defeat a man in an election for the body that rules world football.
The leader of the English federation won the ‘race’ for ‘vice’ from the body that governs world football on behalf of the British federations to David Martin, winning 39 votes to 16 for the Northern Irishman.
Source: DN
