January 30 – Six European federations have formally endorsed Luis Figo’s bid to become FIFA president, sweeping away any doubts about whether Portugal’s most capped footballer will meet one of the strict criteria for standing.
In order to be eligible, a candidate has to have played an active role in association football for two of the five years preceding his proposed candidature and present declarations of support from at least five member associations.
Figo announced shortly before yesterday’s deadline for applications that he intended to become a contender and has now named the associations who have agreed to support him as his native Portugal, Denmark, Montenegro, Macedonia, Luxembourg and Poland.
Although he has considerable credibility in terms of his background, the Portuguese icon has little administration experience and fact that all his backers are all from Europe provides further fuel to the belief that UEFA boss Michel Platini is pulling the strings as far as managing the opposition to Blatter is concerned.
Nevertheless, in a statement Figo said: “I am very happy to confirm that my six nominations were delivered to FIFA this week ahead of the deadline. I would like to thank my colleagues and friends from the nominating FAs and across the global football family who have already given their backing to my campaign and sent messages encouraging me in this mission. It has been a great start – my thanks to everyone concerned.”
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