BEIRUT (AP) — FIFA President Gianni Infantino He received his Lebanese passport at the Interior Ministry in Beirut on Monday, months after being granted citizenship by the country’s president.
Infantino, who is married to Lebanese national Lina al-Ashkar, thanked President Joseph Aoun during a meeting at the Ministry of Interior, where he presented his documents, had his photo and fingerprints taken, and was given a new blue Lebanese passport.
Infantino also holds Italian and Swiss citizenship.
“I am very proud and very happy to finally be here at the Ministry of Interior in Beirut to obtain my Lebanese passport,” Infantino said in a video carried by a local television station. “I love Lebanon.”
Lebanese women are normal unable to pass citizenship to foreign husbands and children under Lebanese law. However, Aoun made an exception for Infantino and granted citizenship to him and his family.
Lebanese men who marry foreign women automatically pass on their nationality to their children, and wives are eligible to acquire nationality after a certain period of marriage.
FIFA is the international football governing body.
