Seven confirmed to run for FIFA presidency

Football's world-governing body FIFA on Wednesday announced it had confirmed seven candidates to run in its election for a new president on February 26.

The candidates proposed are Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, Musa Bility, Jerome Champagne, Gianni Infantino, suspended European boss Michel Platini, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa and South African Tokyo Sexwale.

There was no mention of former Trinidad and Tobago footballer David Nakhid, who announced last week he had submitted his candidacy.

FIFA said in a statement that, with the exception of UEFA chief Platini, the candidature dossiers would be processed by its electoral committee.

Platini is suspended from all football-related activities for 90 days as part of a clampdown on corruption and fraud at the heart of the FIFA operation.

"Should such a ban be lifted or expire before the FIFA presidential election, the Ad-hoc Electoral Committee would decide, depending on the respective exact point in time, on how to proceed with the candidature concerned," the statement read.

FIFA said the six other candidate dossiers had been handed over by the Electoral Committee to the investigatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee to carry out integrity checks.

The chamber will "deliver comprehensive documentation on each candidate, but it will not give any recommendation as to whether or not a candidate may run for the FIFA presidency".

In the next step, the ad-hoc committee will review the results of the integrity checks before formally declaring which candidates can stand for the FIFA presidency.

The February election comes as FIFA is engulfed in a massive corruption probe that has resulted in 90-day bans on Platini and the organisation's long-standing president Sepp Blatter who is standing down.

Those suspensions run out on January 5.