FIFA President Gianni Infantino received backing from top South American football officials during a visit to Colombia, as the world football community is engulfed in crisis.
Infantino arrived in the Colombian city of Cali early on Friday to attend the inauguration of right-wing President Abelardo de la Espriella.
Photos released by the Colombian Football Federation show Infantino smiling alongside CONMEBOL President Alejandro Dominguez and Colombian federation chief Ramon Jesurun.
The visit to Colombia comes as the world football chief faces a storm of criticism following the controversial, and ultimately abandoned, plan to open the World Cup to private investment.
The 56-year-old Italian-Swiss lawyer, who has held the position since 2016, declined to answer AFP reporters' questions about whether he believed FIFA's troubles were over.
Later, attending a children's football festival at a sports complex in Cali, he spoke of his "happiness" at being at the event.
"It's a joy to be here today," he told dozens of children dressed in football gear. "Football is joy, football is happiness, football is unity," he added, noting that "many champions" have been born "in this part of the world, in this land of Colombia."
CONMEBOL Backs Infantino
Infantino, who will seek a fourth and final term in the FIFA presidential election in Rabat next March, faces criticism, particularly from UEFA, the European football body, which on Thursday maintained its threat to boycott the World Cup despite FIFA withdrawing its private investment proposal.
CONMEBOL, which has only 10 FIFA-affiliated members but includes iconic federations such as Argentina and Brazil, on Thursday expressed "concern over repeated unilateral actions" by FIFA.
However, when asked by a Colombian newspaper on Friday, the CONMEBOL president declared that "the excellent work" done by Infantino "cannot be denied."
"We must continue to work for football through dialogue; we don't always have to agree," Dominguez said.
After the Argentine Football Association (AFA) and the Paraguayan football federation pledged support on Thursday, Infantino also received backing from two other South American federations, Venezuela and Ecuador, on Friday.
In line with the continental body's statement, they welcomed the withdrawal of the controversial plan to establish a commercial entity called FIFA Forward Enterprise, open to private investors.
In a letter to the FIFA chief, Ecuadorian federation president Francisco Egas Larreategui added that he trusts Infantino, "as well as those currently leading football to continue working for the benefit of our sport."
A close associate of right-wing figures such as US President Donald Trump, Infantino attended de la Espriella's presidential inauguration later on Friday. Colombia's new leader broke with tradition by choosing to hold the ceremony in Cali, the city considered the salsa capital, rather than before Congress in Bogota.
