Is there about to be a big shake up in the FIFA Presidency race? The new elections for the four year term as FIFA President will be held in May this year, and declarations of interest for the Presidential Candidacy have to be made by January 29th. Most football fans would probably be happy enough to see Sepp Blatter not get back in office for the fifth time, and online betting site Betfair recently suspended betting on their market that he wouldn’t be FIFA boss by the end of 2015. Online betting site Paddy Power are apparently ready to pull one of their famous publicity stunts, but throwing their backing behind former French international David Ginola. It is understood that Ginola will launch his campaign in London on Friday. Ginola, who appeared for Newcastle, Spurs, Aston Villa and (briefly) Everton in the Premier League has some criteria to meet in order run for officer. He, like any candidate, has to have the support of five national associations, as well as proving that he has had an “active role” working inside football for two of the last five years. It’s not clear that he will make either criteria really, despite Paddy Power throwing him out there. Since running as an ambassador in England’s 2018 World Cup bid during 2010, Ginola has been working mostly as a pundit in the media. A spokeswoman for the former Newcastle and Tottenham midfielder said: “We will be looking for the full support of Uefa and five football associations.” FIFA Vice-President Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan appears to be the strongest challenger to Blatter (if Blatter runs again) and has the full UEFA backing, while former FIFA official Jerome Champagne, and former Chile football leader Harold Mayne-Nicholls are in hunt for the top job in world football. None of them have yet received the full backing from five national associations.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 16:30:35 +0000