October 27 – One of the fringe candidates in the eight-strong field going for FIFA president, Liberian Football Association president Musa Bility (pictured), has added a touch of early intrigue to the campaign with reports suggesting his five nominations did not only come from within his own west African region.
The African Football Confederation (CAF) has declined to endorse Bility’s bid to stand and is expected to back former political prisoner Tokyo Sexwale instead for the election on February 26.
But Bility insists he is the only candidate who can be considered truly independent.
“I don’t see any real challengers because all the others who are running have played some part (in FIFA affairs) and if we have to reform football, none of them should be given the right to run the organisation,” he told the BBC.
“They themselves have caused the problems we have today. So they cannot be a solution. If we are to change football, then we have to make sure that those have been running Fifa for the last 20-25 years have nothing to do with it.”
Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa of Bahrain, suspended UEFA president Michel Platini, UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino, former Trinidad and Tobago midfielder David Nakhid, former FIFA deputy general secretary Jerome Champagne, former FIFA vice-president Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan and Sexwale are the other candidates.
CAF holds an executive committee in Cairo this week and despite Bility’s bullish remarks, it looks like he could be one of the first candidates to withdraw.
In somewhat contradictory remarks, he added: “I previously said that if we have more than one African in the race and if then CAF have a meeting with me and say they want to support the other person, I will (withdraw). (But) this is a campaign we are committed to. It’s funded very well,” he said without giving details.
Meanwhile Sexwale, who has been advising FIFA’s anti-discrimination panel, told reporters why he had decided to stand after much deliberation. “The brand of FIFA is severely damaged today following various scandals and other allegations that we are hearing about,” he said. “It needs to be restored. I will not disappoint you.”
South African FA president Danny Jordaan, who spearheaded his country’s 2010 World Cup campaign, said support for Sexwale in SAFA was unanimous. “”We will now engage various other federations to enlist their support because his victory will usher in a new era not only for the continent but the entire world,” said Jordaan.
“I am going into this campaign as a candidate of my country with the confidence bestowed in me to make sure that we win. But win or lose people will know that there was an African who was here who shook things up,” Sexwale added before heading to Cairo to speak to senior CAF officials.
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