Decision on election period for FIFA president expected early in week
FIFA’S future will begin to take shape on Monday when its executive committee meets to choose a date for the presidential election and discuss proposed reforms to the game’s discredited governing body.
If they decide on a December election, it could spark a desperate scramble as potential candidates would be left with less than one month to declare their candidacy and gather the written support of at least five federations.
Fifa has been in limbo since Tuesday, June 2, when president Sepp Blatter, having been re-elected for a fifth term only four days earlier, said he would lay down his mandate at an extraordinary Fifa Congress, which will take place between December and February.
Blatter has repeatedly said that he will not stand again and, unless he backtracks as he did following a similar promise in 2011, Fifa will have its first new president since 1998.
The race to replace Blatter is shrouded in mystery with all the potential frontrunners, such as UEFA president Michel Platini and previous contender Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan, keeping a low profile.
Frenchman Platini, in particular, has ducked out of public appearances at events such as UEFA’s recent executive committee meeting in Prague, where he left his general secretary Gianni Infantino to face the media conference.
Once earmarked as Blatter’s successor and now one of his most bitter critics, the Frenchman has made it clear over the years that he would be reluctant to relinquish the presidency of UEFA. The first matter is to decide on the exact date for the Congress and election, which will be done on Monday.
UEFA, the biggest continental block on Fifa’s executive committee with eight of the 25 places, appears to favour an early election in December to begin the reforms as quickly as possible.
“We are clearly of the opinion that it should happen as quickly as possible, and that means before the end of this year,” said German football federation president Wolfgang Niersbach during a UEFA meeting in Prague last month.
Infantino, meanwhile, added: “The sooner there is clarity about what will happen the better for Fifa and the better for football.”