Last Friday South Africa’s ex-Minister of Housing Construction Tokyo Sexwale announced his withdrawal from the FIFA presidential election, slated for February 26, leaving only four candidates running for the post: UEFA Secretary General Gianni Infantino, FIFA Vice President and Jordanian Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, former-FIFA Secretary General Jerome Champagne and President of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa.
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Before the CAF endorsement, Sheikh Salman who is from Balirain and president of Asia Football confederation (AFC), mid January this year visited the country where among other things he had discussions with government and TFF officials and he promised to start exchange program between the two federations.
“I am deeply honored to have earned the trust of many of our African friends at this crucial stage of the campaigning effort”, Sheikh Salman said in a statement. “Chabur Goc Alei is doing a very good job under hard circumstances and he understands the importance of the reforms and the investment in development that I propose for football in Africa and all over the world”.
In the Rwandan capital of Kigali on Friday, Bahrain’s Sheikh Salman’s bid to succeed Sepp Blatter in the February 26 vote received a massive boost when he was given the powerful backing of the African continent.
“Naturally, I am confident that I now have a reasonably strong position to work from with such support”, he said.
Salman already has the backing of his own confederation while his closest rival, Swiss Gianni Infantino, the UEFA general secretary, has the backing of his European body along with the 10-member South American confederation, CONMEBOL.
Sexwale, a South African businessman, was hopeful his continental confederation would back him but it appears now that his campaign is done.
Sheikh Salman responded to BIRD’s initial letters to the Federation Internationale de Football Association sponsors last month by stating: “When people talk about skeletons in the closet, my closet is clear”.
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“There has been an integrity check and I don’t have anything to defend myself about”.
