Greg Dyke has doubts about Sheikh Salman's FIFA candidacy

Football Association chairman Greg Dyke says he has doubts about the candidacy of the favourite to succeed Sepp Blatter as FIFA president, Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa.

Dyke says Sheikh Salman must first address his alleged role in human rights violations which followed the pro-democracy demonstrations in Bahrain in 2011, during what became known as the Arab Spring.

Dyke's concerns were echoed by the Conservative MP Damian Collins, who accused Sheikh Salman of "not being straight with what he knew" about the reported jailing and physical abuse of activists.

Sheikh Salman is the bookmakers' favourite to replace Blatter at the election later this month.

He was one of the first candidates to withdraw from a proposed 'New FIFA Now' forum in Brussels last month but he insists he has no "skeletons in the closet". He has previously described the allegations of his involvement in the human rights violations as "false, nasty lies".

Dyke told the BBC: "I think there is an issue about Bahrain.

"No one denies that there were violations of human rights involving sportsmen and footballers that went on four years ago - no one denies that. The denial is over whether or not he was involved.

"The question is, does it matter whether or not he was involved, or is it the fact, can you have someone from Bahrain running world football, in charge of world football, given what happened there four years ago? I personally have my doubts."

Collins was one of the organisers of the Brussels debate, which was plunged into farce when only one candidate, Frenchman Jerome Champagne, turned up for the question-and-answer session.

Also on the programme, Collins said: "He's [Sheikh Salman] not being straight with what he knew - he clearly did nothing to stand up for and protect the sportspeople and he doesn't want to discuss it."

Meanwhile Dyke, who will step down as FA chairman in July after changing his mind about standing for a second term, denied the FA has already agreed to vote for Gianni Infantino.

Dyke added: "We're going to discuss this at the FA board this week and the board will decide.

"I went to the meeting at UEFA and we refused, we said 'we are not telling you'. We came under a lot of pressure, there was a lot of pressure. There were half a dozen European nations who said 'we're not deciding today'."