Michel
Platini will not be recognized as a candidate for FIFA’s presidency
while he is under suspension, its executive committee ruled Tuesday in
Zurich. But it left the door open to his candidacy should the ban be
lifted.
The
committee, without mentioning Platini by name, said candidates for the
top job who are suspended were not eligible to run. But its statement
said that should a ban expire or be lifted before the election, such
candidates could be reinstated by the “Ad Hoc Electoral Commission.”
Platini, the president of Europe’s governing body, was at one point considered the front-runner for the post. He was suspended for 90 days
earlier this month amid a corruption investigation by the Swiss at the
same time as the longtime president, Sepp Blatter. Both men have
vigorously protested their innocence.
FIFA also confirmed Tuesday that the election for a new president would take place Feb. 26, as scheduled.
The
executive committee also endorsed several reform measures. The
committee said it “welcomed” recommendations by a reform committee that
include a term and age limit for the president. The changes will be
considered by the full FIFA conference in February. The reforms also
include more transparency for its ethics committee.
“The
tone in the meeting today was good,” said Sunil Gulati, the president
of U.S. Soccer, of the executive committee’s meeting Tuesday. “We took
some steps - small steps, maybe, but important steps in the right
direction.”
FIFA, which runs world soccer, has been embattled over ethical matters for years, culminating in the indictments in May of nine top soccer officials by the United States on corruption charges.
In
June, Blatter, 79, said that he would step down after 17 years in
office when a successor was elected. In September, Swiss investigators
announced that they had opened criminal proceedings against him.
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