By Andrew Warshaw
January 29 – Four of the five candidates for the FIFA presidency are heading to Qatar for weekend meetings, with one of them, South African Tokyo Sexwale, suggesting the horse-trading and unofficial election pacts are in full swing ahead of the February 26 ballot even though all of the contenders are keeping any election deals firmly under wraps.
Spokesmen for frontrunner Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, Gianni Infantino, Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein and Sexwale confirmed to Reuters they will be in Doha for the final of the Asian Football Confederation Under-23 Championship between South Korea and Japan and, on the sidelines, for meetings with Asian federations.
Speaking on South Africa’s Metro FM radio on Thursday, Sexwale confirmed that he would be in Qatar as a “guest of Shaikh Salman” and hinted at eventual support from Asian’s football supremo. “The time for alliances is coming. This is the new thing that I am saying. It is healthy, democratic and it is good,” said Sexwale.
“We are now talking, this one is talking to me, that one is talking to me. But who is talking? We are brothers, we are colleagues, we are comrades in arms.”
Sexwale declined to discuss directly whether he would withdraw from the election, as has been rumoured, but said he wanted to see an African or an Asian become the next president.
“There is this desperation of ‘withdraw’, ‘withdraw’. In whose interest?” he asked. “Let me tell you my strategy … what is the bottom line? It is not Tokyo Sexwale. The bottom line for me, and I am appealing to Europe, to European voters, with the support of Europe let’s have an Asian or African president. That is the bottom line.”
The South African, who was imprisoned in Robben Island during apartheid and was a close friend of Nelson Mandela, suggested Infantino would not be the right choice, as another Swiss, to follow Blatter, who has been in charge since 1998.
“He is my friend, he is a buddy, but I would say maybe we should not replace Blatter with another Swiss.”
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