Is Sexwale the man for football’s top job?
THE race to find a new Fifa president to lead soccer’s scandalplagued administration into a new era was thrown wide open yesterday when onetime favourite Michel Platini was provisionally banned from football.
With a number of other wouldbe candidates falling by the wayside, former South African politician Tokyo Sexwale has emerged as a possible candidate to succeed the beleaguered Sepp Blatter.
Sexwale, who was imprisoned with Nelson Mandela during the apartheid era has, said he is considering running and could win African support. He is currently head of a Fifa task force attempting to resolve complaints by the Palestine FA accusing Israel of hampering its activities.
It is a role that has enhanced his statesman credentials.
Sources close to Platini, head of European soccer body Uefa, had said he expected to win the backing of four of the six world continental confederations to succeed Blatter in an election in February.
But with Fifa in the crosshairs of Swiss and US investigators for alleged corruption, both men were handed 90-day suspensions yester- day by the ethics committee of the world governing body. Another presidential candidate, South Korea’s Chung Mong-joon, was banned for six years, meaning he will also miss out.
The role of Fifa boss is hugely influential: the organisation controls the development and funding of the world’s most popular sport, its relationship with commercial sponsors and the awarding of hosting rights to the World Cup, which takes place every four years.
The deadline for candidates to submit their bids is October 26, which means Platini can now stand only if he submits and wins an appeal against his suspension, all within two-and-a-half weeks.
Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan is the only remaining candidate who has experienced a Fifa election, having lost out to Blatter in May.
He announced on September 9 he would stand, although he has kept a low profile and failed to get the backing of his own regional body, the Asian Football Confederation, which had preferred Platini. Even so, he looks to be the favourite among those who have already said they will stand.
Candidates have to register with the written backing of five national football associations (FAs).
Musa Bility, the president of the Liberian FA, got a friendly “no” from the Confederation of African Football. Zico, one of Brazil’s greatest stars of the late 1970s and early 1980s, was told by the Brazilian Football Confederation it would only endorse him if he first got the backing of four other FAs, something he admitted he was struggling to do.
Two Nigerians who wanted to run, former international player Segun Odegbami and businessman Orji Uzor Kalu, were given little encouragement by their country’s federation. The race could change dramatically if new candidates entered.