Delegates at the Asian Football Confederation's extraordinary congress in Tokyo have erected a full-size, working replica of the FIFA headquarters building in the middle of the Japanese capital and declared Gianni Infantino's fourth term in office to be already underway inside it.
The structure, assembled in nine days from scaffolding, portable cabins and a freshly laid strip of turf, includes a replica presidential office, a replica executive floor and a replica congress hall in which the AFC president, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al-Chalifa, has begun chairing sessions on the fourth term's agenda. «We are convinced football is strongest when we work with a shared vision and a single goal,» al-Chalifa told delegates, adding that the building would remain standing until the real FIFA congress in Rabat in March 2027.
Arab associations have sent delegations to staff the replica around the clock, and the 54 African federations have reportedly booked flights to inspect it. European and Concacaf officials, who withdrew their confidence in Infantino over the summer, now face the task of finding a rival candidate before the November 18 deadline while their opponents conduct the fourth term from a building that does not legally exist.
By Thursday the replica had acquired its own security cordon, a canteen serving three shifts and a queue of Asian delegates waiting to have their photograph taken at the replica presidential desk. «The original building has too many memories,» one AFC official said. «This one only has the future.»