Business backing Ali

PRINCE ALI of Jordan has little chance of becoming the next FIFA president after his weak performance in the last election. Yet soccerex business fancifully claim the football industry — after a poll sent to 50,000 people via soccerex’s website and social media — make him the first choice to succeed sepp Blatter in February.

But this has rather more to do with Jordan having hosted the last soccerex conference and Ali speaking at the next one in Manchester in september. Ali, who had a meeting with Michel Platini yesterday, has yet to decide whether to stand. But he does feel some obligation to the 73 delegates who voted for him in May.

Meanwhile, despite all that has happened at FIFA, Confederation of African Football president Issa Hayatou is still calling for Blatter to stay on for another year. Hayatou knows that when the 79-year- old departs he will be that much more vulnerable after all the murky deals he has been involved in.

THE biggest winner in the FA senior management reshuffle looks to be new football regulation and administration director Darren Bailey, who is now effectively No 2 to chief executive Martin Glenn. Bailey, who will oversee his own empire of discipline, governance, professional game services, refereeing and legal, has a reputation for being difficult, having rubbed the Premier League and Football League up the wrong way on occasions. In contrast, Jonathan Hall and Alastair Maclean, whose responsibilities Bailey has taken over, enjoyed good relationships with the other football bodies.