Of the eight candidates for the post of FIFA President, three are rated higher than him

Fair elections

The early elections for the President of the International Football Federation (FIFA), scheduled for February 26 next year, may turn out to be the most interesting sports elections in history, in terms of intrigue. Eight candidates have been registered for the post of leader of the parent football organization, which is experiencing a deep crisis. And none of them can be said to be an undisputed favorite. And the status of any of the candidates can, apparently, change at any moment, just as the status of the head of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Michel Platini, suspected of corruption, recently changed, about whom no one now dares to talk about as the most likely successor to the outgoing FIFA President Sepp Blatter.

On Tuesday night, the deadline allotted for those wishing to register as a candidate for the presidency of the International Football Federation expired. In the end there were eight people interested. Chronologically, the last one, a few hours before the deadline, was sent to the FIFA office by the head of the Liberian Football Federation, Musa Bility. And commenting on his nomination, he said that he nominated himself because “he doesn’t see any real competitors.”

These words of an official from a small African country who, in fact, never had any weight in the football world could have been ignored. Such words are not so rarely uttered by obvious outsiders who get involved in a serious election campaign only to find out about their existence. But this case, it is possible, has nothing to do with this trend, and Mr. Bility is really confident that he will not be a statistic. Oddly enough, there are reasons to believe in this.

The February elections turned into special ones back in June, when, after mass arrests of high-ranking FIFA officials, Sepp Blatter, who had just been re-elected to a fifth term, announced that he would resign early. But in the fall they became very special.

In such situations, as a rule, the successor of the outgoing president is visible in advance. There was no doubt that Sepp Blatter would be replaced by his main, let's say, ideological opponent Michel Platini, the second person in the hierarchy of football leaders, possessing colossal administrative resources and enormous financial capabilities. Until, in September, Swiss law enforcement authorities initiated an investigation into a tranche of 2 million Swiss francs he received from Mr. Blatter in 2011, suspected of being a bribe. Now Michel Platini and Sepp Blatter are serving 90-day disqualifications, the UEFA president is virtually deprived of the opportunity to conduct an election campaign, and quotes for him in bookmakers have fallen sharply.

So, if we leave Mr. Platini out of the equation, it turns out that it is very difficult to place the remaining candidates in the pre-election ranking, taking into account the specific circumstances in which the presidential race will take place. Most bookmakers favor the Jordanian Prince Ali bin al-Hussein. This is understandable: there is at least some clue here. In May, he was the only competitor of Sepp Blatter in the elections, even then he actively used anti-corruption rhetoric and even collected a far from symbolic number of votes - 73, more than a third. But there is also a catch in those elections. In May, Ali bin al-Hussein was clearly perceived not as a completely independent figure, but as a creature of Michel Platini, who kept in the shadow. Now the connection with Mr. Platini is apparently no longer a trump card, but quite the opposite. In addition, Prince Ali may be hampered by the nomination of another representative of the aristocratic clan from his region - Bahraini Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa. The latter is the head of the Asian Football Confederation and will undoubtedly take a significant part of the continent's votes. But he is not popular outside of it. Rather, he is known there as a person who was once accused of active opposition to democratic forces in his homeland.

UEFA Secretary General Gianni Infantino has no problems with recognition. For quite a long time he has been working as something of a “voice” of this organization, voicing and explaining all its key initiatives and programs - anti-racist, financial fair play, etc. But Mr. Infantino has a connection with Michel Platini that is ambiguous by today’s standards, even more straighter than that of Ali bin al-Hussein. This connection is so strong that his nomination practically “on the flag” seems to be a safety net for Mr. Platini: in case he is not allowed to “promote” himself or take part in the elections at all. And electors are always skeptical about this kind of option.

Jerome Champagne, who worked for FIFA for a long time, including as Deputy Secretary General, has a different problem. He is directly connected with Sepp Blatter and all the events in the federation that took place in the previous decade and in which the security forces of the United States and Switzerland are now showing keen interest. This is potentially a "black mark".

Mystery candidates remain. South African Mosima Sexwale is famous for the fact that, as an ally of Nelson Mandela, he served 13 years in prison. In football, as a member of the relevant FIFA committee, he fights against racism, but this battle does not earn many points. The resume of Trinidadian David Nahid is even more modest - he was the captain of the national team, led a network of football academies.

However, who can guarantee that in the current situation, many years of experience working in serious football structures at a serious level or a post in Trinidad or Liberia that is hardly noticeable to the public is more valuable. But far from the corruption storms that sweep away one heavyweight after another. These candidates, in any case, have a chance to appear in the eyes of the delegates at the February FIFA Congress, who remember very well how their careless colleagues were arrested in Zurich in May, as those who, by giving someone a vote, do not risk branding yourself as a supporter of a bribe-taker and an autocrat.

Alexey Dospehov

Bookmaker William Hill's bets on winning the FIFA presidential election

Ali bin al-Hussein (Jordan) - 2.0

Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa (Bahrain) - 4.0

Gianni Infantino (Switzerland) - 8.0

Michel Platini (France) - 10.0

Jerome Champagne (France) - 13.0

Mosima Gabrielle Sexwale (South Africa) - 17.0

Musa Bility (Liberia) - 21.0

David Nahid (Trinidad and Tobago) - 34.0

Michel Platini is in a strong group