February 10 – Sepp Blatter and the three candidates vying to dethrone him have been successfully vetted, making them eligible to officially battle for the presidency of FIFA on May 29.
As expected, Blatter, who has been in the post since 1998 and is seeking a fifth term, Dutch federation president Michael van Praag, outgoing FIFA vice-president Prince Ali bin Al Hussein and former Portuguese icon Luis Figo all passed integrity checks conducted by FIFA’s ethics committee and were then validated by a three-man electoral committee set up as part of FIFA’s reform process.
In a statement FIFA clarified that for purposes of transparency, prior to the final review process – the equivalent of a fit and proper persons test – electoral committee chairman Domenico Scala (as a dual Swiss/Italian national), the independent Chairman of FIFA’s Audit & Compliance Committee, and Claudio Sulser (as a Swiss national) both withdrew from their positions to avoid any appearance of a potential conflict of interest based on nationality since Blatter is also Swiss.
Sindi Mabaso Koyana (South Africa), as the independent deputy chairwoman of the Audit and Compliance Committee replaced Scala, while Singapore’s Lim Kia Tong, as deputy chairman of the disciplinary committee, replaced Sulser.
The third electoral committee member, Larry Mussenden of Bermuda, chairman of FIFA’s appeals committee, remained.
In order to be eligible, a candidate had to have played an active role in association football for two of the five years preceding his proposed candidature. There had been some speculation as to whether Figo complied with this but the electoral committee cleared him to take part.
FIFA said that in its new composition, the committee “will continue to supervise the electoral process” right up to election day to make sure no rules are broken.
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