December 15 – David Nakhid, the former Trinidad and Tobago midfielder who was excluded from the FIFA presidential campaign on a technicality, has failed in his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to have the ruling overturned.
Nakhid was ruled out by FIFA’s Ad hoc Electoral Committee because one of his five nominations, the US Virgin Islands, also supported a rival candidate. Under the rules, that is not permitted.
Nakhid was the only contender from CONCACAF but was disqualified and immediately pointed the finger squarely at US Virgin Islands Football Association president Hillaren Frederick as being the culprit and for “betraying” the Caribbean region. Nakhid’s legal team contended that the Ad-Hoc Electoral Committee was guilty of “a clear violation of the FIFA Electoral Regulations” by excluding him as a candidate.
Nakhid filed an appeal with CAS which he hoped would enable him to stand in February’s election to replace outgoing president Sepp Blatter, but CAS dismissed his case.
“The CAS has dismissed the appeal and upheld the FIFA AEC decision,” a statement said. “In appealing to the CAS on November 13, 2015, Mr Nakhid sought the annulment of the challenged decision and an order that his candidacy be reinstated.
“In line with the FIFA AEC, the CAS Panel found that one member association had issued declarations of support to two candidates, including one for Mr Nakhid, in violation of the applicable FIFA rules.
“As a consequence, those letters of support were disregarded, meaning that David Nakhid had not met the qualifying criterion of obtaining declarations of support from at least five member associations, and accordingly, his candidature could not be validated.”
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