Seven to run for FIFA presidency

Seven to run for FIFA presidency

Seven to run for FIFA presidency

Football’s world-governing body FIFA on
Wednesday announced that it had confirmed
seven candidates to run in its election for a new
president on February 26.
The candidates proposed are Prince Ali
Bin Al Hussein, Musa Bility, Jerome
Champagne, Gianni Infantino, Michel
Platini, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al
Khalifa and Tokyo Sexwale.
There was no mention of former
Trinidad and Tobago footballer David
Nakhid, who announced last week that
he had submitted his candidacy.
FIFA said in a press release that, with
the exception of UEFA chief Michel
Platini, the candidature dossiers would
be processed by its electoral committee.
Platini is currently suspended from all
football-related activities for 90 days as
part of a clampdown on corruption and
fraud at the heart of the FIFA operation.
“Should such a ban be lifted or expire
before the FIFA presidential election, the
Ad-hoc Electoral Committee would
decide, depending on the respective
exact point in time, on how to proceed
with the candidature concerned,” the
statement read.
FIFA said that the six other candidate
dossiers had now been handed over by
the Electoral Committee to the
investigatory chamber of the
independent Ethics Committee to carry
out integrity checks.
The chamber will “deliver
comprehensive documentation on each
candidate, but it will not give any
recommendation as to whether or not a
candidate may run for the FIFA
presidency.”
The next step will see the Ad-hoc
Electoral Committee review the results of
the integrity checks before formally
declaring which candidates can stand for
the FIFA presidency.
The election next February comes as
FIFA is engulfed in a massive corruption
probe that has resulted in 90-day bans
on Platini and the organisation’s long-
standing president Sepp Blatter who is
standing down.
Those suspensions run out on January 5.