Africa’s two hopes of having a shot at the FIFA top job beat deadline

It is confirmed that two Africans are now fully in the race to succeed FIFA president Sepp Blatter after beating Monday’s deadline for interested candidates to submit the necessary paperwork.

Anti-apartheid campaigner and mining tycoon Tokyo Sexwale (pictured above) joins fellow businessman and Liberian FA boss Musa Bility in the race that will be decided at a special congress on February 26 2016.

FIFA is yet to confirm the eight-man field which includes three candidates from Europe, two from Asia and one from North and Central America.

Sexwale, who was jailed in Robben Island for 13 years, is a former government minister and a member of FIFA’s anti-discrimination task force.

Bility, 48, has about five years experience in the game. He is a businessman in the oil industry, and his company Srimex Oil and Gas Enterprise is the largest importer of petroleum in his country.

UEFA secretary Gianni Infantino, a 45-year-old Italian-Swiss with 15 years in the game joins embattled UEFA president Michel Platini, a Frenchman, and former FIFA executive and advisor to Blatter Jerome Champagne, also a Frenchman, from Europe.

Jordanian Prince Ali Bin Hussein, a former FIFA vice-president and former president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) gets his second chance to get the top job after losing to Blatter in the last election earlier this year.

Another Asian in the race is Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, a 49-year-old Bahraini with 17 years experience in the game. He is currently the Asian Football Confederation president and a FIFA vice-president.

51-year-old Trinidadian David Nakhid is a former footballer who played in Switzerland, Belgium and Greece, as well as for his country, and currently runs his own David Nakhid International Football School in Trinidad.

Nigerian duo Segun Odegbami and Orji Uzor Kalu are out of the race after failing to submit their entries. A spokesperson for Odegbami, who announced his intentions first on Joy FM last month, said his candidacy ultimately did not stand a chance with the late support granted him by the Nigeria Football Federation.

The 1980 Nations Cup winner was said to have only received the NFF\’s official support on the deadline day and that prevented him from getting the support of other federations. Every candidate needed to submit their forms along with the support of five federations.

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