By Andrew Warshaw
January 27 – The rapid rise of England’s David Gill up the political footballing ladder has been given a further boost after the Englishman emerged as odds-on favourite to become the latest FIFA vice-president.
UEFA have revealed that only two candidates are going for the automatic vice-presidency reserved for British officials to be vacated in May by Northern Ireland’s Jim Boyce: Gill and Wales’ Trefor Lloyd Hughes.
There had been expected to be a three-way fight to replace Boyce for what is still reserved as a British privilege but which is now administered by UEFA. But Scottish football supremo Campbell Ogilvie has not put his name forward.
Gill, the former Manchester United chief executive, has been a member of UEFA’s executive committee for less than two years and initially indicated he would not stand. But he is now expected to be elected at UEFA’s annual Congress in March to take over from Boyce two months later.
As part of FIFA’s recent reform package, the historic nominated British vice-presidency, which has been traditionally rotated between the four British associations, is being abolished to become a European position. But UEFA, in turn, have decided to keep it as a British seat though no longer rotated.
Meanwhile, UEFA have clarified the election process at their Vienna congress. While Michel Platini is running unopposed to retain the presidency, 12 candidates from member associations are standing for seven exco seats for the four-year period 2015 to 2019.
The terms of office of the following seven members are expiring: Senes Erzik (Turkey), Ángel María Villar Llona (Spain), Grigoriy Surkis (Ukraine), Mircea Sandu (Romania), Peter Gilliéron (Switzerland), Borislav Mihaylov (Bulgaria) and Sergey Fursenko (Russia).
Four of these are standing for re-election: Villar Llona, Surkis, Gillieron and Mihaylov.
Completing the list of 12 candidates are: Sándor Csányi (Hungary), Fernando Gomes (Portugal), Yngve Hallèn (Norway), Lloyd Hughes (Wales), Ogilvie (Scotland), Davor Šuker (Croatia), Geir Thorsteinsson (Iceland) and Servet Yardımcı (Turkey).
The terms of office of four European members of the FIFA exco – Platini, Villar Llona, Boyce and Theo Zwanziger (Germany), three of them Fifa vice-presidents – will also end at the FIFA Congress to be held in Zurich at end of May.
Platini obviously retains his posts automatically but Villar Llona’s bid for a further mandate could come under scrutiny since the Spaniard is among those being investigated by FIFA’s ethics committee over his alleged conduct during the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid process.
German football boss Wolfgang Niersbach, like Gill rapidly emerging as a major force in the corridors of power, is standing for election in place of Zwanziger.
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