Michel Platini has emerged as the favourite to succeed Sepp Blatter as Fifa president after receiving backing from four out of the six confederations.
The 60-year-old Uefa chief has yet to formally announce whether he will run for the presidency, but sources say Asia has followed Europe, South America and Concacaf in supporting Platini to succeed Sepp Blatter.
Platini held talks in Zurich on Sunday night with the Asian Football Confederation president, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, and also with regional powerbroker, Kuwait’s Fifa executive member Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah of Kuwait.
Al-Sabah is viewed as the most important mover and shaker in the International Olympic Committee and together with Salman should be able to swing 46 countries behind him, enough to ensure a majority.
Should he decided to run, Platini would be the clear favourite for the Fifa presidency, and there has already been talk of Germany’s Wolfgang Niersbach being a likely successor for the Uefa presidency.
Fifa today announced that the election to succeed Blatter will take place on 26 February next year.
That means it will be almost nine months between Blatter’s promise to step down and the election to decide on his successor. Potential candidates will have until 26 October to announce whether they plan to stand under Fifa election rules.
