28 Jan 2015

Has Sepp Blatter already won the race for Fifa president?

Luis Figo enters the race to challenge Sepp Blatter in the Fifa presidential election – but with the number of candidates growing are the odds increasing in Sepp Blatter’s favour?

The former Real Madrid and Barcelona forward announced his intention to run against incumbent Blatter in an interview with CNN.

Figo is the latest to throw his hat in the ring alongside Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, former Fifa official Jerome Champagne of France, ex-France international David Ginola and Dutch FA president Michael van Praag.

Nominations close on Friday and each contender must receive the backing of at least five of Fifa’s 209 member associations. In order to be eligible, a candidate also has to have played an active role in association football for two of the five years preceding his proposed candidature.

Blatter is the strong favourite to get a fifth presidential term in the 29 May ballot, despite bribery and financial scandals which have implicated several of his executive committee colleagues.

Luis Figo

Figo, who has served on the Uefa Football Committee from 2011 to 2015, played as a winger for Sporting CP, FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Internazionale before retiring in 2009. The 42-year-old is understood to already have the minimum five nominations.

Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein

Fifa vice president Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan has backing among those wanting further reform of Fifa, including the English Football Association, but will struggle to gain support in his home confederation of Asia.

Michael van Praag

Former chairman of Ajax and current head of the Dutch FA, van Praag is an outspoken critic of Blatter. The 67-year-old has said he has the backing of Belgium, Sweden, Scotland, Romania, the Faroe Islands and the Netherlands.

Jerome Champagne

Champagne is a former French diplomat and has worked closely with Blatter for more than a decade and has a lot of experience in world football. Last week he told reporters in Brussels that he was “close,” to gaining full support.

David Ginola

Former French international footballer David Ginola in January announced his bid to run for Fifa president. Campaigning under a manifesto of democracy, transparency and equality, Ginola is being backed by Paddy Power but is struggling to gain support by member associations.

Sepp Blatter

Blatter is the current president of Fifa. He was elected in 1998. He was re-elected as president in 2002, 2007 and 2011. Despite fierce criticism, Blatter remains extremely popular among Fifa delegates in Africa, Asia, Oceania and large sections of Latin America.

How will the election process work?

All submissions must be made to the Fifa, which will forward them to the committee for examination and for a decision to be made on the admission of the candidate to the Fifa presidential elections. All candidates are bound by the Fifa code of ethics and may be subject to investigations in cases of irregularities.
An ad-hoc electoral committee was established in 2014 to oversee the election process for the office of the Fifa president. It is designed to ensure transparency and fairness in the election process as well as respect for basic and fundamental democratic principles.
The committee consists of a Domenico Scala, the head of Fifa's Audit and Compliance Committee, the chairman of the Appeal Committee Larry Mussenden, the chairman of the Disciplinary Committee Claudio Sulser.