Japan football association official resigns after AFC aligns with Infantino

Vice president Takeshi Okada said responses to respective World Cup controversies did not align with his idiosyncratic values.

The vice president of Japan’s shot relation has quit, saying the “series of responses” to controversies surrounding the World Cup did not align with his idiosyncratic values.

Takeshi Okada, who coached Japan astatine the World Cup successful 1998 and again successful 2010, stepped down a week aft the caput of Asian shot said the portion supported Gianni Infantino’s bid for re-election arsenic FIFA president.

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Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa delivered the unequivocal backing astatine a gathering successful Tokyo.

It came weeks aft the AFC had joined shot bodies successful Europe and North America successful condemning Infantino implicit his plan to unfastened FIFA’s premium competitions specified arsenic the World Cup to backstage investors.

Infantino has faced calls to discontinue and mislaid the enactment of immoderate associations successful his bid to beryllium re-elected to a 4th and last term.

Okada, who is 1 of 3 Japan Football Association (JFA) vice presidents, said helium was stepping down “entirely of my ain volition”.

“Throughout my vocation I person treasured the societal worth of athletics based connected my condemnation that athletics indispensable beryllium conducted with integrity,” helium said.

“However, with respect to the bid of responses surrounding the caller FIFA World Cup, determination is simply a important spread betwixt those responses and my ain beliefs, and arsenic a sportsman I cannot judge them.”

Infantino, who apologised for the failed backstage concern project, has headed FIFA since 2016 and is moving for re-election successful March.

Two months agone the AFC and Sheikh Salman signalled they could crook connected Infantino.

A associated missive with European assemblage UEFA and CONCACAF, representing federations successful North and Central America and the Caribbean, declared shot “belongs to nary individual”.

Okada said his determination had been “reached aft cautious and repeated deliberation”.

“Taking into relationship our narration with the AFC and the interaction connected Japanese football, I bash recognize that determination are applicable reasons for aligning our stance with that of the AFC,” helium said.