“I care about football, so what I’m seeing regarding the image of FIFA—not only now but in the past years—I don’t like it,” Figo said, presenting his candidacy on CNN.
The other candidates are Prince Ali bin al Hussein, a FIFA vice president from Jordan; Jérôme Champagne, a former Blatter ally and FIFA executive between 1998 and 2010; David Ginola, a French ex-player whose campaign is being funded by an Irish betting company; and Mino Raiola, a powerful soccer agent who made noises about running this month.
But not all of Blatter’s challengers are viable at this point. The first step toward getting on the ballot is presenting letters of support from five national federations by Jan. 29. Van Praag and Figo both said they had received them. As of Wednesday evening, none of the others had said publicly that they had collected them.
Figo decided to enter the race last fall after seeing how FIFA handled a report into possible corruption around the process to award hosting rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. That was “the moment that I saw something has to be done,” Figo said.
Meanwhile, in Amsterdam, van Praag spoke publicly about his candidacy on Wednesday for the first time. “FIFA is doing badly and has lost all credibility,” van Praag said. “FIFA is constantly under suspicion. Of conflicts of interest, of nepotism, of corruption. FIFA has its back to the future.”
Although he took aim at Blatter in his speech, van Praag pointed out that he would still keep him in the FIFA fold as an adviser.
Of course, the whole exercise could prove academic. Blatter remains popular among FIFA’s voting members across large sections of the globe. The vote is open to all 209 national member associations of FIFA, and each member’s vote counts equally, no matter how
large or small.
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