Football agent Mino Raiola, whose clients include Mario Balotelli and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, "has entered the pack of candidates challenging Sepp Blatter" for the presidency of FIFA in May's election, according to Mike Collett of REUTERS. The 47-year-old Dutchman with Italian roots "needs to prove five football associations support his bid and that he has been active in football for at least two of the last five years" before the deadline for submitting bids expires at midnight on Friday. Raiola: "I'm getting violently sick when I think that Blatter could be re-elected" (REUTERS, 1/23). In London, Ben Rumsby reported the race for the FIFA presidency "took a further farcical twist." Like the other "novelty" candidate David Ginola, who is being paid £250,000 ($375,000) by
a bookmaker to "try to launch a challenge to Blatter, Raiola's chances even
of getting the required endorsement to run -- the support of five national
associations by next Thursday -- appear non-existent." Raiola: "I have been criticizing FIFA for years, so it’s time to act on it." He added, "How dare you organize a World Cup in South Africa and then ask €150 for a
ticket? It's a disgrace. FIFA wants to organize a party in someone else's
house and then demands a huge entrance fee, but the owner of the house does
not get anything. This has got to stop. It's incomprehensible that some FAs still vote for Blatter. If people vote
Blatter, they vote North Korea, if they vote me, they vote South Korea" (TELEGRAPH, 1/23).
MAYNE-NICHOLLS ON EDGE: INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL's Andrew Warshaw reported as the "tension builds" toward next week's deadline for "official nominations to run for FIFA president," prospective candidate Harold Mayne-Nicholls, a former FIFA official, "has given the strongest indication yet that he will pull out and instead support Prince Ali bin al-Hussein." Mayne-Nicholls said that he will "make up his mind one or two days before Thursday's cut-off point." He said that he was "certain he could get the required five letters of support from national federations." Mayne-Nicholls: "We need change. If I don't ask for the letters, it's because it would make no sense, not because I couldn't get them. I know I could. But it's not an easy decision. There's no point in competing against someone who has the same ideas as you and has better options (to win). Of the other candidates, I'm much closer to Prince Ali than the others" (INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL, 1/23).
