FIFA to elect new president in February 2016

The FIFA logo is seen outside their headquarters in Zurich October 7, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

ZURICH - The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) on Tuesday confirmed the association would hold an extraordinary congress to elect new president on Feb 26, 2016.

The decision came after FIFA's executive committee convened to address other hot spot issues such as pushing for structural reform and increasing the transparency of its ethics committee proceedings.

Domenico Scala, chairman of the FIFA ad-hoc electoral committee, provided information to the executive committee regarding the ongoing process for the FIFA presidential election.

Scala explained that candidacies for the FIFA presidency that are submitted in time, but who are connected to candidates who are subject to a (provisional or definite) ban from taking part in any football-related activity, will not be processed by the electoral committee as long as the ban is valid and in force.

The chairman also told the executive committee that, should the ban be lifted or expire before the FIFA presidential election, the election committee would decide on how to proceed with the candidacy concerned.

On Oct 8, FIFA's ethics committee provisionally banned FIFA president Joseph S. Blatter, UEFA president and FIFA vice-president Michel Platini, and FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke for a period of 90 days. The duration of the bans may be extended for an additional period not exceeding 45 days.

Platini had been provisionally suspended from all football activities due to a two-million-Swiss-franc payment ($2.10 million) from Blatter in 2011. The promising candidate will not be processed by the electoral committee if the ban still takes effect.

Meanwhile, the executive committee agreed to an important change to the rules governing investigations and decisions made by the independent ethics committee. FIFA's code of ethics will be amended to allow the ethics committee, at its discretion, to publish more information about its ongoing proceedings.

Additionally, the reform committee will submit the final set of reform proposals to the FIFA executive committee at its next session in December 2015. The final proposals will be submitted to the FIFA congress for consideration in February 2016.