FIFA has accepted seven presidential candidates to stand to replace incumbent Joseph Blatter at an extraordinary congress in 2016, excluding former player David Nakhid, the world football governing body said on Wednesday.
An online statement did not give specific reasons for not accepting the bid of Nakhid, a former Trinidad and Tobago international, saying only that FIFA’s member associations have proposed, in due time and form, seven candidates.
Gianni Infantino, the general secretary of the sport’s European organization UEFA, Bahraini royal family member Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa and Liberian football association head, Musa Bility confirmed their bids on deadline day.
Also standing are UEFA president Michel Platini, Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan, South African businessman and apartheid-era political prisoner Tokyo Sexwale and ex-FIFA official Jerome Champagne.
Platini was the favourite before being suspended by FIFA’s ethics committee for 90 days along with Blatter, awaiting an investigation into a 2 million Swiss franc (2.06 million dollars) payment by FIFA to the former France player in 2011.
Due to his ban, Platini would not yet have his candidacy processed by the committee in charge of the election. “Should such a ban be lifted or expire before the FIFA presidential election, the Ad-hoc Electoral Committee would decide.
“Also, depending on the respective exact point in time, on how to proceed with the candidature concerned,’’ the statement said. However, the other six were to be assessed by the committee and would undergo integrity checks carried out by the investigatory chamber of the FIFA ethics committee. The election will take place at an extraordinary FIFA congress in Zurich on Feb. 26, 2016.
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