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Daniel Lewis
The German Football Association (DFB) has announced it will not support Gianni Infantino's re-election as FIFA president.
Infantino is set to be re-elected at the 73rd FIFA Congress in Rwandan capital Kigali on Thursday after no challengers came forward to stand against him in the leadership race.
However, despite Infantino having a clear run at another term in charge, Germany have joined a select few nations to publicly declare they do not back the decision.
The DFB added in a statement on Wednesday that it has contacted FIFA in recent weeks on a matter of issues but has received no reply or only insufficient information.
DFB president Bernd Neuendorf said: "The DFB will not support the re-election of FIFA president Gianni Infantino in Kigali.
"We have received little to no substantial information from FIFA in response to several inquiries from our part in recent weeks, especially on contentious issues.
"However, we can expect FIFA to take the concerns of its member associations seriously and address them.
"FIFA should become much more transparent and open in its dealings with the national associations."
The DFB will not support the re-election of FIFA president Gianni Infantino in Kigali.
Full statement https://t.co/uZa2fwbbRY pic.twitter.com/jy42XlTqDb
— Germany (@DFB_Team_EN) March 15, 2023
Neuendorf has previously criticised FIFA for its attempts to restrict teams' political protests at the Qatar World Cup, but he hopes for a positive outcome in future discussions.
"It is in its own interests to explain how and why certain decisions are made and who is involved in them. This has not been the case of late," he said.
"Nevertheless, there was a constructive exchange between several European member associations and the FIFA president on contentious issues today.
"We therefore remain hopeful that this will lead to an improvement in our cooperation in the future.
"I am interested in maintaining a critical and constructive cooperation with FIFA, in particular with its president, and hope that this can be realised in the coming years."
Infantino succeeded Sepp Blatter as the president of world football governing body FIFA in February 2016.
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