FIFA has written to its 209 members with an official list of the candidates who will be standing in the presidential election on February 26.
In the letter, signed by Acting Secretary General, Markus Kattner, FIFA has confirmed that the five candidates are in alphabetical order:
The favourites at the moment are Sheikh Salman and Gianni Infantino. Both can count on large blocks of votes from their own confederations.
The new president will be elected in a secret ballot of FIFA’s 209 member associations. As president of the Asian Football Confederation, Sheikh Salman can count on most of Asia’s 46 votes.
Infantino has the full backing of the UEFA executive committee and he is likely to receive most of Europe’s 53 votes.
Bookmakers made Prince Ali the early favourite, but that was based almost entirely on the fact that he got about a third of the votes when he challenged Sepp Blatter for the presidency last May.
Most of his Prince Ali’s 73 votes last year came from UEFA, but it will be backing Infantino this time.
Some insiders believe Prince Ali will get between 20 and 30 votes next month.
Infantino’s campaign has momentum, but that may be because he needs it to make up ground on Sheikh Salman.
The globetrotting UEFA general secretary is in Paraguay on Tuesday for the South American Football Confederation Congress and he will be pitching for its 10 votes.
On Monday, the Central American Football Union declared that its seven votes would be going to Infantino.
Infantino is returning to Europe this week and he will host a special event at Wembley next Monday. The FA will almost certainly back him, although that will be a board decision which will be made only after FA chairman Greg Dyke has met all the candidates. FA vice-chairman David Gill has described Infantino as “the stand-out candidate”.
