UEFA's general secretary Gianni Infantino is expected to enter the race for the FIFA presidency later today.
The members of UEFA's executive committee are expected to recommend that Infantino – Michel Platini's right-hand man for the last six years – be nominated for the presidency.
Platini has also submitted his candidacy for the election but is currently banned for 90 days pending a disciplinary hearing into a £1.3million payment signed off by outgoing president Sepp Blatter in 2011.
Sources close to UEFA have indicated that an emergency meeting of UEFA's executive committee – via teleconference – has been called where Infantino's candidacy will be discussed.
It comes after Asian football's leader Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa became the sixth candidate to submit his candidacy for the FIFA presidential election, according to the official Bahrain news agency.
Sheikh Salman, who is from Bahrain, is said to have submitted his nominations to FIFA last night despite opposition from human rights groups.
His entry into the election, even before the news of Infantino's involvement broke, threw the contest wide open. The Sheikh had previously backed UEFA president Michel Platini until his suspension, he commands widespread support in Asia and is a close ally of influential Olympic powerbroker Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah from Kuwait.
The other candidates announced so far are: South Africa's Tokyo Sexwale, a former anti-apartheid activist who was imprisoned on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela; Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan; David Nakhid, former Trinidad and Tobago player; and former FIFA deputy general secretary Jerome Champagne.
Sheikh Salman is a member of the Bahrain royal family and has attracted opposition from human rights organisations due to the regime's role in the suppression of the country's pro-democracy demonstrations in 2011.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel