DEAD SEA, JORDAN – MAY 3: Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein speaks at the discussion studio at the opening of the Soccerex convention, the world’s largest football business event bringing together global leaders in the business of football to debate network and do business on May 3, 2015 at the King Hussein convention centre, Dead Sea, Jordan. (Photo by Salah Malkawi/Getty Images for Soccerex)

UEFA to Back Prince Ali in FIFA Presidential Elections

The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) will attend the FIFA Congress as scheduled on Friday and will reportedly support FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan, according to the Press Association.

UEFA first called for the postponement of the Congress, and almost boycotted the election, after several key figures of FIFA were arrested on Wednesday after they were charged with several corruption charges.

After some delegation between current FIFA President Sepp Blatter and UEFA President Michel Platini, where Platini urged Blatter to quit and Blatter refused to step down, UEFA made the decision to go the other route and support the Swiss’ opposition instead.

After the UEFA meetings, Platini said, “So many scandals have shaken FIFA. FIFA does not deserve to be treated like this.” He also added: “If Mr. Blatter wins, UEFA will meet in Berlin to discuss the future of our relations with FIFA.”

In a tweet put out by Stewart Regan, the Chief Executive of the Scottish Football Association, he stated that after the UEFA meeting that they will go ahead with the election and “get behind” Prince Ali.

Also, according to Football Association of Ireland chief executive John Delaney, David Gill (who is part of the UEFA Executive Committee) will resign if Blatter is re-elected.

Sepp Blatter is running for re-election for his fifth consecutive term as president and the only competition he has is Jordanian Prince Ali, who is currently the FIFA Vice President representing Asia.

The Jordanian Prince has been very vocal against Blatter in recent months leading up to the election and has recently spoken out about the arrests, “FIFA needs leadership that governs, guides and protects our national associations. … Leadership that restores confidence in the hundreds of millions of football fans around the world.”

Now, according to sources with the association, UEFA will back Blatter’s opponent in hopes that they will be able to vote Blatter out of office. With the support of UEFA, Ali will have, “a minimum of 45 votes”, said Michel Platini but he hopes all 53 members will vote in favor of Ali as both Blatter and Ali need 105 votes to win the presidency.

Reports coming from Prince Ali supporters have said that he also has 60 votes from outside of UEFA, and if he does, then this election promises to be a close one as those 60 votes (plus the 45-50 guaranteed from UEFA) will inch him close to the 105 he needs to win.

However, the Asian Football Confederation, the confederation Prince Ali represents, has opposed the postponement of the election and has said on their website that it, “reiterates its decision taken at the AFC Congress in Sao Paulo in 2014 … to support FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter.” The African Confederation were opposed to the delay of the election and they also have expressed support for Sepp Blatter leaving UEFA the sole association to put pressure on the President to resign.

 

 

About Josh Espinal

I am a multimedia journalism graduate from the University of Texas at El Paso. Soccer is more than a passion for me, it's basically life. Follow me on twitter at @joshbruv and see me tweet about soccer in almost every language imaginable.

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