THE CANDIDATES

JEROME CHAMPAGNE

Champagne spent the first decade of the century at Fifa, working as deputy secretary general and international relations director before being forced out in 2010.

Although vocal from the outside since then about the need to rebalance the power in world s soccer while championing smaller and emerging f federations, Champagne has still appeared to be a B Blatter loyalist.

SHAIKH SALMAN

The Bahraini royal, who leads the Asian Football all Confederation, was quick to endorse Michel Platini for the Fifa presidency last July and had never ver spoken of ambitions to run the global game.

Now he is the favourite. Salman entered the contest on deadline-day in October and adopted da a low-key approach to canvassing, focusing on federation meetings away from the spotlight rather r than parading in front of the media like Infantino.o.

TOKYOT SEXWALE

TheT 62-year-old South African had the credentialst to be a powerful voice in the campaign. A former Robben Island prisoner and antiapartheida activist, Sexwale’s profile had grown leadingl Fifa’s attempts to resolve differences between Israeli and Palestinian soccer leaders.

But his election campaign had been a complete washout. Ghana federation president Kwesi Nyantakyi derided Sexwale’s pitch to CAF for focusing on his past friendship with Nelson Mandela and time on Robben Island .

GIANNI INFANTINO

Like Salman, Infantino’s campaign was only conceived following Platini’s disgrace. . Once the UEFA president was suspended, European federations sought a candidate and turned to Platini’s top administrator.

As UEFA general secretary, the 45-year-old Infantino is the most globally recognized of the candidates due to his role presiding over draws for European competitions.co petitions.

PRINCE ALI

TheT Jordanian federation president denied BlatterB a first-round victory in last May’s head-to-headh election before standing aside forfo the incumbent. But Ali’s 73 votes were mostlym gathered from European federations whow now back Infantino.

The 40-year-old Ali has been playing catchup on the campaign trail, relying on regular mediam appearances to maintain his relevance whilewh unable to flaunt endorsements.

Attempts to get rivals censored by Fifa hav have failed.

Choosing the time and place during an election or an (executive committee) meeting, I think this raises a lot of doubts on why, and leave people a bit suspicious on the intentions.”

Shaikh Salman while suggesting that government agencies have tried to influence Fifa politics with the raids and arrests around Fifa elections.

This is not the time for deals.” There is no question of that… I think a democratic election is fundamental for the credibility of Fifa as an institution,”

Infantino said in response to a question on whether he might consider a deal with his main opponent Bahrain’s Asian Football Confederation president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa ahead of Friday’s vote.

Only a transparent booth can prove that each voter is following his heart and conscience and that there are no forced votes by preventing voters taking photos of their voting paper to prove that they’d followed voting instructions,”

Renaud Semerdjian, one of Prince Ali’s lawyers said after the Jordan Royal contacted the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after having his request for transparent booths was

turned down by Domenico Scala,