Blatter with a French accent - Politico
When Michel Platini announced this week that he was running for the FIFA presidency, he instantly became the overwhelming favorite in the eyes of insiders, observers and bookies. Within hours of the Frenchman declaring his candidacy he had received the official endorsement of the Asian Football Conference president, Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa of Bahrain, even though two other likely candidates are Asian. There were reports that, ahead of the announcement, Platini had sounded out both the confederations in the Americas and received encouraging answers. He wields clout as president of UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, which dominates the FIFA Executive Committee. The election follows the decision by Sepp Blatter to resign as president on June 2, four days after winning a fifth term in office. That vote was conducted against a backdrop of arrests of senior FIFA members and their associates and raids on the headquarters of FIFA in Zurich and CONCACAF, the Central and North American governing body, in Miami. When FIFA announced on July 21 that the election for a “new president” will finally take place on February 26, 2016, contenders started to pop their heads above the parapet. Candidates must also pass a FIFA ethics check, but that has not proved a barrier. Source: www.politico.eu
