Four of the candidates for president of FIFA are heading to Qatar for meetings on Saturday, with one of them, the South African Tokyo Sexwale, saying, “The time for alliances is coming.” The development suggests that electoral horse-trading might be about to begin in the battle to replace Sepp Blatter as head of soccer’s world governing body.
Spokesmen for the front-runners, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa and Gianni Infantino, said they would be in Doha on Saturday to meet with Asian member associations of FIFA. A spokesman for Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, who challenged Blatter in the last election, confirmed that he would also be traveling to Qatar.