Football Association lends support to Infantino's FIFA presidency bid

The English Football Association has agreed to support Gianni Infantino's bid for FIFA presidency.

Infantino is up against five candidates to succeed the disgraced Sepp Blatter on Feb. 26, and the backing from the FA was agreed on at a board meeting on Wednesday.

"We decided that we would back Gianni Infantino," FA chairman Greg Dyke said. "We did what we promised we would, I spoke to every candidate either in person or on the phone.

"We were impressed by Gianni. We were also impressed by Prince Ali but in the end we decided to go with the UEFA candidate."

Dyke has been particularly vocal about the controversial goings-on with FIFA, hailing Blatter's resignation in June as "brilliant for world football" and as recently as December stated that World Cup bidding will no longer be "carved up by a bunch of crooks."

Dyke intends to stand down as chief in June due to his plans to modernise the organisation that he believes will be strongly opposed.

Infantino will compete with Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, Tokyo Sexwale, and Jerome Champagne for the tough task of steadying world football's governing body that has been rife with allegations of corruption and kickbacks over the past few years.