World football governing body, FIFA, on Thursday in Berlin confirmed five candidates to run for its presidency on February 26 after its electoral committee named them as official candidates.
The committee named the candidates to include Prince Ali Al-Hussein of Jordan; Asian confederation chief, Sheikh Salman Al Khalifa of Bahrain; and former FIFA official, Jerome Champagne of France.
The rest are UEFA Secretary General, Gianni Infantino of Switzerland; and South Africa’s Tokyo Sexwale.
Trinidadian ex-footballer, David Nakhid, was however not included on the list in spite of him saying he had submitted his candidacy.
Also, FIFA said Liberia’s Musa Bility had failed to pass an integrity check and it dropped him.
A report from the committee disclosed that UEFA President, Michel Platini, has also submitted a bid.
The committee said he could become a sixth candidate after the end of his 90-day provisional ban.
It said the situation could also change if FIFA’s appeal committee or the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned the ban imposed by the FIFA ethics committee.
Platini was banned in connection with a “disloyal payment” he received from the also suspended FIFA President, Joseph Blatter.
The report disclosed that Bility was not admitted in view of the content of the integrity check report relating to him.
It did not go into details because of personality rights, but said Bility has the right to appeal the decision before CAS.
The committee also said Nakhid was not accepted by FIFA because he provided the backing of a member-federation, which was already supporting another candidate.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that each candidate required the support of five member-federations before the integrity check carried out by the ethics committee.
The integrity check ranges from possible fraudulent behaviour and match manipulations to human rights violations.
FIFA will elect a new president on February 26 to succeed Blatter, who beat Prince Al-Hussein on May 29 for the top job.
The Swiss was to say four days later he would stand down at the extraordinary congress as FIFA then got engulfed by various corruption affairs.
dpa/NAN.
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