Japan football vice-president Okada resigns after AFC aligns with Infantino

Takeshi Okada, a vice president of the Japan Football Association (JFA), has resigned. He said the 'series of responses' to controversies surrounding the World Cup did not align with his personal values.

Okada coached Japan at the World Cup in 1998 and again in 2010. He was one of three JFA vice presidents.

Okada stepped down a week after Asian football head Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa, at a meeting in Tokyo, delivered the region's backing for FIFA president Gianni Infantino's bid for re-election.

Weeks earlier, the AFC had joined football bodies in Europe and North America in condemning Infantino over his plan to open FIFA's premium competitions such as the World Cup to private investors.

Infantino has faced calls to quit and lost the support of some associations in his bid to be re-elected to a fourth and final term. He has headed FIFA since 2016 and is running for re-election in March. He apologised for the failed private investment project.

Okada said he was stepping down 'entirely of my own volition'. He said: 'Throughout my career I have treasured the social value of sport based on my conviction that sport must be conducted with integrity.'

He also said: 'However, with regard to the series of responses surrounding the recent FIFA World Cup, there is a significant gap between those responses and my own beliefs, and as a sportsman I cannot accept them.'

Okada said his decision had been 'reached after careful and repeated deliberation'.

He said: 'Taking into account our relationship with the AFC and the impact on Japanese football, I do understand that there are practical reasons for aligning our stance with that of the AFC.'

Two months ago the AFC and Sheikh Salman signalled they could turn on Infantino. A joint letter with European body UEFA and CONCACAF, representing federations in North and Central America and the Caribbean, declared football 'belongs to no individual'.