Luis Figo shock candidate for Blatter’s job

Four candidates have achieved the necessary nominations to be on the ballot paper for FIFA President.

Current President Sepp Blatter will be challenged by Asian Football Confederation vice-president and Jordanian Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, Michael can Praag from the Netherlands Football Association and former Portuguese international Luis Figo.

The names were unveiled by FIFA’s ad hoc Electoral Committee for the election on May 29, 2015. 209 football associations will vote for the most powerful post in world football.

Luis Figo is a surprise entrant to the ballot.

The nominations’ dossiers are now passed to the FIFA Ethics Committee to carry out integrity checks which will be complete within 10 days.

The ad hoc Electoral Committee will then review the candidates’ nominations to see if they comply with the electoral rules.

Notably absent from the list are David Ginola and Frenchman Jerome Champagne both of whom had been making waves in the media about standing.

Ginola’s candidature was widely seen as a promotional stunt for a corporate sponsor but Champagne was deadly serious, and in fact was the first to openly declare he would challenge Blatter.

Recently he has been signalling that he night have trouble picking up the five nominations needed to qualify for the ballot. He secured only three.

Luis Figo’s name was the biggest surprise. He played for Sporting Lisbon, Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Inter Milan before retiring from football on 31 May 2009. He represented Portugal 127 times.