FIFA have confirmed that incumbent Sepp Blatter, former Portugal forward Luis Figo, Dutch FA president Michael van Praag and Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan have bid to stand for president.
FIFA said in a statement that the four would be subject to integrity checks carried out by FIFA’s ethics committee before they could be formally declared as candidates.
“Upon receipt of the results of the integrity checks, the Ad-hoc Electoral Committee will reconvene in order to review all of the submissions and validate their compliance with the applicable FIFA regulatory provisions,” FIFA said in a statement.
“Following this process, the Ad-hoc Electoral Committee will formally admit and declare the candidates who are eligible for the office of FIFA President.”
Blatter, 78, is standing for a fifth mandate, having been in power since 1998 and is widely expected to win the vote in Zurich on May 29.
He is expected to sweep up most of the votes from Asia, Africa and South America. UEFA, which has 53 of the 209 votes, has not yet publicly declared which candidate it will support.
Frenchman Jerome Champagne said earlier yesterday that he had not received backing from five national associations, as required under the rules, and would not be able to stand.
Champagne said in a statement that he had won the backing of only three associations. The Frenchman said he had lost sponsorship after Figo and Van Praag announced last week they would stand.
Prince Ali, a FIFA executive committee member, also announced early last month he was in the race to unseat Blatter.
“The institutions have mobilised to eliminate the only independent candidate,” said Champagne, who has campaigned against what he says is growing inequality in the sport.
“The latest events orchestrated in secret... distributing letters of support between candidates, made me lose sponsorships especially in Europe.
“I also note that I would have been a candidate with the old version of the rules, and that I cannot be one with the new modifications adopted in 2013 on a UEFA proposal.”
“The slogans put forward by the three candidates supported by UEFA clearly show that no-one dares to question the central cause of the current problems of football,” Champagne added.
Champagne, a former FIFA official, said there were “numerous” reasons why the federations had not supported him.
“Because they feared reprisals from their confederations having issued ‘recommendations’.
“Because their federations were candidates to host continental competitions,” he said.
“Because they relied too heavily on the financial support.
“Because they were committed to defend a united continental front.”