Agence France Presse
Lausanne, Oct 27: Bahrain’s Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim al Khalifa and UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino blew the race to succeed Sepp Blatter as FIFA president wide open as the bidding process closed at midnight here. Eight candidates have confirmed their bids but FIFA will not publish the final list immediately.
Swiss lawyer Infantino’s campaign in particular will come as a huge blow to suspended UEFA president Michel Platini’s own faltering hopes in the February 26
elections.
Asian football chief Shaikh Salman pledged to get the scandal-tainted FIFA organisation ‘back on the right track’, but the biggest shock-waves were created by the multilingual Infantino, who has the ‘full backing’ of UEFA’s executive committee. Russia, who does not have a nominee in the executive committee has also pledged its support for the Italian.
“We believe that Gianni Infantino has all of the qualities required to tackle the major challenges ahead and to lead the organisation on a path of reform to restore FIFA’s integrity and credibility,” said UEFA in a statement.
Erstwhile favourite Platini officially remains a contender pending an examination of his candidacy when his ban ends January 5.
Infantino’s announcement casts doubt over Platini’s support within UEFA and poses the question on whether Infantino is being presented as ‘Plan B’ in case the former France star is prevented from contesting the polls.
Platini’s lawyers confirmed he had had a first appeal against his ban rejected Monday, but the case is still to go before FIFA’s appeals committee and his lawyers said they remain ‘convinced the appeals will eventually show his complete integrity and restore all his rights’.
Salman also left it late to officially announce that he had entered the race to succeed Blatter. The 49-year-old Bahraini royal has been the head of the Asian Football Confederation since 2013 and is familiar with FIFA from his role as a vice-president. But it is unlikely that an Asian will head world soccer’s governing body.
Salman said in a statement issued Tuesday that he had decided to run ‘out of a wish to put the international organisation back on the right track and in response to calls by many members of the football community’.
Another heavyweight candidate to come forward is Tokyo Sexwale, the 62-year-old South African anti-apartheid campaigner who was once jailed alongside Nelson Mandela. His non-footballing background could serve as a handicap though.
Other confirmed candidates include the Jordanian Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, French former diplomat Jerome Champagne, former Trinidad and Tobago captain, David Nakhid and Liberian FA chief Musa Bility.
