Bahrain’s Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa gained a major boost in his bid to become the next FIFA president when he received the endorsement of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) on Friday.
Salman and Switzerland’s Gianni Infantino are now the clear front-runners to win this month’s presidential election at soccer’s ruling body FIFA, which has been embroiled in a huge corruption scandal that has seen 41 people and entities indicted by the US Department of Justice.
The governing body of soccer in Africa, which has 54 full voting members, said Asian Football Confederation president Salman was its preferred candidate for the poll in Zurich, Switzerland, on Feb. 26, that is to determine who succeeds Sepp Blatter.
Photo: AP
“CAF will give full support to Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim al- Khalifa toward his candidacy for the FIFA presidency,” CAF vice president Suketu Patel told reporters, before declining to answer further questions.
The decision was a big blow for South African candidate Tokyo Sexwale, who will remain in the race despite having come under pressure to withdraw.
Salman already has the backing of his own Asian confederation, while Infantino, general secretary of UEFA, has the support of his European organization, along with 10-member South American confederation CONMEBOL.
“I am deeply honored to have earned the trust of many of our African friends at this crucial stage of the campaign effort,” Salman said in a statement. “The two endorsements only mean there is a strong groundswell in favor of my candidacy. What they don’t mean is that I can sit back and relax. This campaign will be decided on the day of the vote, not before. Naturally, I am confident I now have a reasonably strong position to work from with such support.”
The FIFA poll is to be a secret ballot and the support of executive committees for candidates does not necessarily translate into a united block of votes.
Sexwale, who looked upset as he huddled with his advisers after Friday’s meeting, is to remain in the race, despite being asked by CAF officials to stand down.
“They did ask: ‘Can you stay back?’ And my answer was I recommend that they should not consider me today... so that they should not have a difficult decision to make, and for the sake of unity, but certainly in the race I remain. I still stand, I go to Zurich,” the South African told reporters, noting that individual associations would make their own decisions.
The former anti-apartheid activist, who was imprisoned on Robben Island and was a close friend of late South African president Nelson Mandela, said he did not feel betrayed by his fellow Africans.
“No. I was a man of war at one stage and I was in prison. I had been betrayed during war. I saw men die and I was betrayed like Mandela. This is all about football. Let’s smile, it is a game,” he said.
CAF listened to presentations from Salman, Sexwale, Infantino and Frenchman Jerome Champagne, the former FIFA deputy general secretary, who all traveled to Rwanda to attend the meeting.
Infantino said he expected the decision and vowed to win over the single federations.
“I am not surprised. It was in the air for a few days. It was not really a secret, but it is not the executive committee that votes, it is the individual associations,” he said. “I still have to visit many African countries in the coming few weeks and still have to see a few people.”
Champagne declined to comment on the CAF decision.
The fifth candidate, Prince Ali Bin al-Hussein of Jordan, did not attend.
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The former head of CONMEBOL has agreed to hand over more than US$10 million in stocks and property in a deal to reduce his punishment in the FIFA corruption scandal, a prosecutor in the case said on Friday.
Eugenio Figueredo, a former FIFA vice president, also agreed to cooperate with police in Uruguay, where the 83-year-old is from. He was extradited to the South American country in December last year.
Figueredo was arrested in Zurich in May last year as part of the sweeping investigation into corruption at soccer’s governing body. He faces charges of money laundering and taking kickbacks to sell media and marketing rights for soccer tournaments and matches across the Americas.
“He reached a deal, as mandated under the law, that includes handing over 12 or 13 properties plus bank accounts and rights to shares he had invested in,” Uruguayan prosecutor Juan Gomez said.
The properties include nine that were embargoed in June last year worth US$9 million, Gomez said. “We can say the total is more than 10 million [US] dollars.”
The deal could help Figueredo reduce his potential jail time by up to half the maximum 15-year sentence, Gomez said.
The former FIFA executive committee member has been in custody since May last year and is hoping to be allowed home under house arrest, a right given to defendants over the age of 70.
More than 40 people and entities have been charged since May last year by US justice officials investigating corruption inside FIFA.
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