New FIFA President Swiss Gianni Infantino arrives with a ball for a friendly soccer match at the home of FIFA in Zurich, Switzerland, Monday, Feb. 29, 2016. (Ennio Leanza/Keystone via AP)

While voters across America participated in Super Tuesday, FIFA was on the heels of an historic election of its own, both with their own takes on democracy.

Officially dubbed an “extraordinary congress” to elect a new president after Sepp Blatter was kicked out of soccer, the member nations voted in Gianni Infantino, trading one bald Swiss man for another. Infantino even slipped in and out of half a dozen different languages in his campaign speech much like Blatter used to do.

Time will tell whether Infantino is the right man to lead FIFA through an important period of reform, but he’s certainly better than most of the other options.

Blatter was a cancer on the game, allowed to grow his power unchecked. He turned a blind eye to rampant corruption, mostly because he was likely as corrupt as anyone.

The man many thought would replace Blatter, Frenchman Michel Platini, was also expelled from soccer after he was, allegedly, paid off by Blatter to not run against him in a prior presidential election.

Thus Infantino threw his name into the ring to represent Europe in the election, running against front-runner Bahrain’s Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, Jordan’s Prince Ali Al Hussein, France’s Jerome Champagne and South Africa’s Tokyo Sexwale, who, while having the best name of the lot, withdrew from contention right before the vote.

The U.S. Soccer Federation announced prior to the vote that it was behind Prince Ali, the American-educated man who actually stood up against Blatter in last summer’s election, days before Blatter announced he would step down as the corruption allegations stacked up. Prince Ali would have been a solid choice from an American perspective, but there’s little doubt Sheikh Salman would have been a poor choice.

Sheikh Salman was thought to be the favorite heading into Friday’s vote with many in Africa and Asia behind him. But his link to the torture of Bahraini athletes during the Arab Spring ultimately brought him down. He has denied those links, but when you’re president of the football association and your soccer players are being tortured, it doesn’t look good, whether or not you were involved.

Infantino has no such links. While he was born in an adjacent town to Blatter, he also has no links to corruption and helped UEFA grow the soccer business in Europe immensely and promises to do the same for FIFA.

Importantly, Infantino supported the reform package passed before the presidential election, something Sheikh Salman inexplicably did not support.

FIFA’s presidential election process is a bit awkward, often calling for multiple votes. Each football association gets one vote, but two of the 209 countries were stripped of their vote Friday as punishment for governmental interference. Every nation has equal say, for better or worse, meaning Germany and Brazil have as much power in the election process as Tahiti and Monaco.

(Interestingly the reform package was voted on publicly and electronically while the presidential election was done secretly by hand.)

It’s almost democratic to a fault in that way, contrasted against the American presidential election, which uses far more complicated methods, for better or worse. For starters, primaries such as those on Super Tuesday are poorly conceived, whether it be closed primaries or the mere fact that there bafflingly is no national primary day.

However Infantino used democracy to his advantage by promising every nation an equal $5 million, which means a lot more to tiny FAs struggling to survive than a powerful FA like in England or Italy.

On the first vote, if one candidate does not get two-thirds of the vote, they vote again, this time with one candidate needing at least half of the vote. After each vote, the lowest vote getter is eliminated until someone gains at least half of the vote to be elected.

The U.S. helped garner enough support for Infantino after the first vote left him and Sheikh Salman in a near deadlock, with Prince Ali in a distant third. Thus, Americans can hope Infantino will be thankful for the support that got him elected in the second round, even if it didn’t come initially.

Regardless, the new president will have fewer powers than the man he replaces due to the reform efforts aimed at cleaning up soccer’s governing body.

The important thing is that Blatter is gone. Which brings us back to Super Tuesday.

Blatter is not unlike Donald Trump in many ways. Both also played soccer when they were younger, both claiming to be superb athletes in their typically immodest ways.

However the two are undeniable bullies who cannot take criticism and often respond with preposterous statements or outright lies. Yet somehow they manage to appeal to enough voters to stay relevant.

FIFA is done with Blatter. Trump, unfortunately, looks like he’ll be in the election for the long haul.

 

SOCCER SNIPPETS

MLS STARTS SUNDAY

Sticking with the political theme, the Iowa caucus is an event that never sneaks up on you. Despite the state bearing little resemblance to the electorate as a whole, the state makes sure you know it’s the first – and unfortunately unduly influential – primary in America.

The Iowa Hawkeyes basketball and football teams, on the other hand, have been a bit more like the Major League Soccer season, which by the way starts this weekend.

The Hawkeyes teams have been sneaky good this year. The football team nearly won the Big 10 to reach the College Football Playoff and the basketball team, until a recent rough patch, jumped into the top 5 in the nation.

MLS will hope to have a sneaky good season as well, starting with 10 games on Sunday.

FC Dallas opens at home against the Philadelphia Union at 2 p.m., same time as Houston hosts New England.

The first nationally televised game of the year is a rematch of last year’s title game, with reigning champion Portland hosting Columbus on ESPN at 3:30 p.m. FS1 will have the Seattle-Sporting KC match at 6 p.m.

I guarantee watching those games will be more exciting than a John Kasich rally.

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