UEFA backs Infantino

UEFA's Executive Committee has endorsed current General Secretary Gianni Infantino ahead of the FIFA elections on February 26. The Italian was also backed by Germany's Football Federation (DFB) on Tuesday to succeed Sepp Blatter as FIFA president.

Infantino will go up against former FIFA official Jerome Champagne, AFC president Sheikh Salman, South African Tokyo Sexwale and Prince Ali of Jordan. However, not all UEFA nations have decided to back Infantino with Malta, for example, giving its support already to Prince Ali who lost out to Blatter in the last FIFA elections.

Before the meeting, president of the English FA, Greg Dyke, was coy when asked whether the association would support Infantino. "I don't think it's for UEFA to say, 'We support Gianni,'" Dyke said ahead of the meeting. "It's for individual associations and we won't make a decision for at least another week."

Meanwhile, Europe's governing body has decided it will not have its own elections to find a new president until all appeal avenues have been explored to overturn Michel Platini's eight-year ban from FIFA.

Hans-Joachim Eckert, head of the FIFA Ethics Committee, imposed eight-year bans on Blatter and Platini last year for a "disloyal payment" of 3.5 million euros made to the UEFA president in 2011. Platini has appealed to FIFA's Appeals Committee and will go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, if the ban is not overturned.

UEFA's Executive Committee also confirmed that goal-line technology would be used at the 2016 European Championships, as well as in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League from the 2017/18 season.