South African businessman and former politician Tokyo Sexwale believes that the time is right for an African to provide leadership for world football’s governing body. The former government minister previously served on FIFA’s anti-discrimination task force and was a founding member of the Makana FA, which was the unofficial football organisation for apartheid-era prisoners on Robben Island, where he spent 13 years as a prisoner alongside good friend Nelson Mandela.
Michel Platini’s right hand man at UEFA (European football’s governing body) is running for the FIFA presidency in the absence of Platini, who was suspended from running due to unethical behaviour. The UEFA Secretary General has proposed to expand the World Cup to 40 teams, which has been a point of disagreement with his fellow candidates. He also wants to increase the use of video technology in the game. The 45-year-old has the backing of most European nations, including England, who publicly voiced their support for Infantino.
The son of Jordan’s King Hussein ran against Sepp Blatter for FIFA’s presidency in May 2015, losing 133 votes to 73, which was quite an impressive feat considering the fact that he was a relative unknown FIFA official from the Asian confederation. Ali was previously president of the Jordan Football Association, before becoming the youngest member of the FIFA Executive Committee. At 40, he is the youngest of the candidates, and many believe that he is a favourite to be elected president. It certainly seems that this will be his best shot at taking the FIFA reigns.
Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa is a member of the Bahrain Royal Family, and has been the president of the Asian Football Confederation since 2013. He was previously the Bahrain FA president and Deputy Chairman of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee. The 50-year-old joined the race for the presidency in October, and has since garnered the support of the African Confederation, CAF, under Issa Hayatou’s leadership. This pledge from CAF is not binding on the 54 African associations, who are expected to be scattered in their voting.
The Frenchman is a former FIFA executive member, having held numerous senior posts at FIFA until deciding to leave the organisation in 2010. The 57-year-old was brought into FIFA by Blatter, and has always been close to the now suspended former president, choosing not to publicly criticise him, despite calling for general reforms. He was FIFA deputy secretary general between 2002 and 2005, and was their director of international relations from 2007 until he left FIFA in 2010 after political infighting saw him lose his position.
