Sports Briefs
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THE FIFA on Thursday, November 12, approved five candidates to stand in February’s vote to replace Sepp Blatter as president of world football’s governing body, but Michel Platini, UEFA president, was missing on the list.
The five who met the qualifications following a series of integrity tests were Ali Al Hussein, a Jordanian prince; Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, Asian football chief; Jerome Champagne, a former FIFA official; Gianni Infantino, UEFA general secretary and Tokyo Sexwale, South African anti-apartheid campaigner, a FIFA statement said.
The statement said that the candidacy of Platini, the suspended head of European football who had been the favourite to succeed Blatter, would be examined once his 90-day suspension by the FIFA’s ethics committee was over.
The only candidate to be disqualified after receiving provisional approval was Musa Bility, the head of the Liberian football association.
“The Ad-hoc Electoral Committee did not admit the candidature of Musa Hassan Bility, in view of the content of the integrity check report relating to him,” the statement said.
The FIFA said it had explained the reasons for disqualification privately to Bility, but it would not make the specifics public.
The race is said to be wide open given Platini’s potential ethics violations, including a probe over a murky $2 million payment he received from FIFA in 2011.
— Nov 23, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT
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