FIFA President Gianni Infantino said on Thursday that his victory in the 2016 election was due to Rwanda’s recovery from the 1994 genocide.
Speaking at the FIFA Congress in Kigali, Rwanda, Infantino said he was considering withdrawing from the election – before a visit to Rwanda’s genocide memorial changed his mind.
Infantino said that on a previous trip to Rwanda for a temporary football tournament before the 2016 elections, an unidentified official told him we’re not going to support you.”
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The Swiss-Italian football captain was about to throw in the towel when he remembered the visit to the memorial.
“I said, who I am to give up,” Infantino said. “What this country has suffered and how this country came back up is inspiring for the entire world.”
“So I certainly couldn’t give up because someone was telling me something,” he added. “I stayed, I attended the match, I continued to campaign … I was elected FIFA president.”
In 1994, an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus died in a brutal 100-day genocide in Rwanda, perpetrated by the largely Hutu government and militia.
Infantino was elected unopposed for another term as FIFA president on Thursday.
