Soccer-European Club Association backs Infantino for FIFA job

(Adds quotes, details) By Julien Pretot PARIS, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Europe's biggest soccer clubs have given their support to UEFA interim chief Gianni Infantino's FIFA presidential campaign, the European Club Association (ECA) said on Tuesday. ECA vice-chairman Umberto Gandini announced the decision at a news conference during the general assembly of the umbrella organisation, which represents over 200 clubs including the major ones such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and Bayern Munich. "We know Gianni very well. He has been instrumental in the creation of the relationship between UEFA and the ECA," Gandini said. "We see his candidacy as a nice opportunity for him which hopefully will benefit football worldwide. "He has the skills to perform very well," he added ahead of this month's vote at the scandal-plagued world governing body. The independent ECA, which replaced the G-14 group of leading clubs in 2008, has two representatives on the UEFA executive committee but has no direct role in the presidential voting which is conducted by FIFA's 209 members. The other candidates in the election are Bahrain's Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, ex-FIFA vice president Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, former FIFA deputy general secretary Jerome Champagne and South African Tokyo Sexwale, a former political prisoner who was jailed alongside Nelson Mandela. Infantino and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) chief Salman are the front-runners to win the Feb. 26 vote at FIFA, which has been embroiled in a huge corruption scandal with 41 people and entities indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice. Salman has the backing of his own AFC and the Confederation of African Football (CAF), while Swiss Infantino, has the support of his European organisation along with the 10-member South American confederation CONMEBOL. The ECA promotes its members interests on European club matters and aims to maintain a high level of involvement in the decision-making of the game's governing bodies. (Reporting by Julien Pretot, Writing by Ken Ferris; editing by Ed Osmond)