FIFA chose longtime European soccer bureaucrat Gianni Infantino to succeed Sepp Blatter as president on Friday, an outcome that came as a relief to many in soccer’s embattled world governing body, rocked for nine months by widespread corruption allegations.

Mr. Infantino’s election in the tense, six-hour vote came on the second ballot with 115 of the 207 possible votes, surprising many delegates who expected more support for his chief rival, Sheik Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa. A member of the royal family of Bahrain, he was viewed by some as a welcome outsider to soccer’s historic power bases, but was targeted by critics of his country’s human-rights record.

Before electing Mr. Infantino, a Swiss citizen who hasn’t been directly implicated in FIFA’s recent probes, delegates approved a slate of measures imposing some limits on the president’s power while beefing up oversight of FIFA’s financial operations.

“It’s over. It’s over and we can move forward,” Mr. Infantino said in French in his acceptance speech, referring to the scandal that engulfed FIFA last year.

While Mr. Infantino campaigned on reform, he won support from many voters, particularly in the developing world, by employing political tactics pioneered by his predecessor and countryman Mr. Blatter, who was elected to five consecutive terms.

Mr. Infantino has vowed to increase financial assistance by paying out $5 million to every national soccer association over the next four years, a plan his rival Sheik Salman warned could “mortgage FIFA’s future.”

Mr. Infantino, who spent seven years as secretary-general of the Union of European Football Associations, European soccer’s governing body, also said he would explore expanding the World Cup to 40 teams from 32 starting in 2026, with the new spots going mainly to South America, Africa and Asia.

Source: Wall Street Journal