Ad-hoc Electoral Committee admits 5 candidates for FIFA presidency

And then there were five.

On Thursday, FIFA's Ad-hoc Electoral Committee admitted and declared five candidates eligible to stand for the governing body's presidency.

The candidates are:

• Prince Ali Bin-al Hussein, president of the Jordan Football Association
• Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, president of the Asian Football Confederation
• Jerome Champagne, former FIFA official
• Gianni Infantino, UEFA secretary general
• Tokyo Sexwale, former anti-apartheid activist from South Africa

Of course, the most notable absence from the list is UEFA president Michel Platini, who is provisionally banned from all football activities for 90 days after the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland opened criminal proceedings against outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter near the end of September.

Blatter is suspected of a "disloyal payment" valued at CHF 2 Mio. (£1.35 million, €2 million) to Platini that was allegedly executed in February 2011. There was reportedly no written contract for the payment, which Blatter referred to as a "gentleman's agreement."

Integrity checks were carried out on all candidates, and Platini's integrity check will apparently not be carried out until his disciplinary case is completed.

From FIFA's media release:

Pursuant to FIFA's Electoral Regulations and the FIFA Organisation Regulations, the investigatory chamber of the Ethics Committee conducted integrity checks on the candidates. This two-step process involved first creating detailed reports of risk-relevant information relating to each candidate. The integrity check included a review of corporate records, litigation cases, bankruptcy proceedings, potential regulatory actions taken against the candidate and a review of media reports concerning potential red flags (fraudulent behaviour, match manipulation, human rights violations, etc.). Each candidate was then asked to comment on the content of the detailed report produced.

Also omitted from the list of candidates was Musa Bility, the president of the Liberian Football Association. His candidacy was not admitted, but FIFA did not make the reasons for his exclusion public.

The election will take place at the Extraordinary FIFA Congress in Zurich on Feb. 26, 2016.