FIFA Congress Stanley Rous as President. The 2016 FIFA Extraordinary Congress in Zürich elected Gianni Infantino as the new president on 26 February 2016. Only five elections have had two or more candidates: the 39th (1974), 51st (1998), 53rd (2002), 65th (2015), and 2016 Extraordinary Congress. A total of eight extraordinary congresses have taken place: 1908 (Brussels), 1953 (Paris), 1961 (London), 1999 (Los Angeles), 2001 (Buenos Aires), 2002 (Seoul), 2003 (Doha), and 2016 (Zürich). In the 2016 Extraordinary Congress, FIFA President Sepp Blatter would have remained in his position until his successor is elected. However, due to the fact he was suspended,
England 2018 FIFA World Cup bid stated that "the tone of this campaign has to be different. The board of "England 2018" was chaired by Lord Triesman, chairman of The FA, who has since resigned. He was joined by Geoffrey Thompson, vice president of FIFA; Lord Mawhinney, chairman of the Football League; Paul Elliott, who is the chairman of the Advisory Group to the bid; and Lord (Sebastian) Coe, who led London's successful bid for the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, is chairman of LOCOG, and who took leave of absence from his role as chairman of the FIFA Ethics Committee to join the bid