Fifa’s executive committee will discuss the possibility of postponing the presidential election at an emergency meeting, amid the ongoing crisis engulfing football’s governing body.
Several Fifa ExCo members are pushing for an emergency meeting to take place, and it is likely to be held the week after next in Zurich.
The calls for the meeting come after Sepp Blatter, Jerome Valcke and Michel Platini were both provisionally banned for 90 days by Fifa’s ethics committee.
The presidential election is scheduled to be held on 26 February. Although, with the outgoing president Blatter and the man tipped to replace him, Michel Platini, suspended, and another candidate, Chung Mong-joon, suspended for six years by Fifa’s Ethics Committee, the credibility of any election currently lies in tatters.
The subject is also likely to be raised at a meeting of Uefa’s 54 member associations which has been called for next Thursday in Nyon, Switzerland. Uefa president Platini filed his nomination papers to run for the presidency just hours before his suspension.
Belgian Michel D’Hooghe, the longest-serving member of the Fifa ExCo, told Press Association Sport: “I am one of the members asking for an emergency meeting of the Fifa ExCo. At the moment I have no information about an eventual postponing of the election but perhaps this point could be discussed there.”
Recently elected David Gill has contacted Fifa’s acting secretary general Markus Kattner about calling a meeting, and talks are also taking place with Issa Hayatou, the head of African football who is standing in as caretaker president while Blatter is suspended.
The deadline for nominations for candidates for the Fifa presidency is due to end on 26 October. Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, who was defeated by Blatter in this year’s presidential election, is also planning to run, and it is understood Asian football chief Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa from Bahrain is pondering whether to run himself, as is South African Tokyo Sexwale.
Platini has denied any wrongdoing and insisted his bid for the Fifa presidency remains on course, despite the suspension.
The Frenchman has lodged an appeal against the ban, as has Blatter, who was relieved of his duties as Fifa president on Thursday.