Prince Ali to run for FIFA presidency again

Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan is back in the race to be elected FIFA president having declared his candidacy four months after losing May’s vote to Sepp Blatter.

Prince Ali, 39, announced in a speech in the Jordanian capital that he would run again for the top job at world football’s governing body.

“I’ve decided to launch my candidacy for the presidency of FIFA for the second time,” he said.

“Let me be clear, I want to finish what we started.

“We have come too far to walk away now. I have thought long and hard on this, I believe in the road we started, I believe in the moments I shared with people all over the world, who told me their hopes and dreams.

“My ambition now is to make FIFA worthy of representing the greatest sport and the greatest fans on the planet.”

Prince Ali is the third heavyweight to declare following UEFA chief Michel Platini of France, and former Asia vice-president Chung Mong-joon of South Korea.

He also said in his declaration speech that his campaign will depend on reforming the organisation.

“It is only through new leadership that FIFA can change I do not believe that FIFA can give this sport back to the people of the world without new leadership, untainted by the practices of the past.

“Since the last election, I have thought long and hard about how to reform FIFA. It will be a difficult task. We must overcome deep-seated corruption and political deal making.”

Ali lost by 133-73 votes to incumbent Blatter in the election on May 27 before the Swiss announced he was standing down from the position four days later after FIFA was plunged into the worst crisis in its 111-year history following arrests of its officials and others two days before the election.

A fresh election to find a successor to Blatter will be held in Zurich on February 26 and Ali will again campaign on an anti-corruption, reform programme.

Backed by Platini in May’s election, Ali now faces him as an opponent in the race, describing the Frenchman as a “Blatter protege” who is not the man to lead FIFA into a new era of transparency and democracy.

Ali has already defeated Chung in an election when he took his Asian vice-presidency seat on the FIFA executive committee in 2011 which ended the Korean’s 17-year stint at FIFA’s top table.

Ali subsequently lost his place on the FIFA executive earlier this year.

Liberian FA president Musa Bility, former Brazilian footballer Zico and David Nakhid, a former Trinidad & Tobago international, and all lightweights in FIFA political circles, have also said they are standing for the position.