Tuesday 23 February 2016 10:25, UK
FIFA will have a new president on February 26. After 18 years, Sepp Blatter's controversial reign will come to an official end at the FIFA Congress in Zurich.
Five candidates want to replace Blatter and become the most powerful man in world football, and whoever wins will become the ninth elected president in FIFA's 112-year history.
The new president will be elected in a secret ballot of FIFA's 209 member associations, but Kuwait and Indonesia are banned, so there may be only 207 votes up for grabs.
Africa has 54 votes, Europe 53, Asia 46, North and Central America and the Caribbean 35, Oceania 11 and South America 10. A candidate needs two thirds of the votes to win in the first round. In subsequent rounds, the candidate with the lowest number of votes drops out and a simple majority is required to win.
During the past three months, Sky Sports News HQ has interviewed all five candidates - Sheikh Salman of Bahrain, Gianni Infantino, Prince Ali of Jordan, Jerome Champagne and Tokyo Sexwale.
Over the next few days we are profiling each candidate, study their manifestos and assess their chances. We continue the analysis by looking at Jerome Champagne.
Profile: Sheikh Salman
Profile: Tokyo Sexwale
JEROME CHAMPAGNE:
WHY IS HE STANDING?
Like Prince Ali, Champagne has unfinished business at FIFA. He tried to stand in last May's election, but he could not get the five letters of support he needed from member associations. This time, he received the letters and his self-funded campaign has been all about reforming FIFA and making football fairer for all.
Champagne worked at FIFA for 11 years until he was fired by Sepp Blatter. Blatter had been put under pressure to act by the disgraced former president of the Asian Football Confederation Mohammed Bin Hammam. Champagne says he fell out with Bin Hammam while he was trying "to clean up some of the confederations".
WHAT ARE HIS CHANCES?
He has no chance of winning, but he would argue his ideas have been an important part of the debate. At the start of the campaign, he predicted this would be an open election: "This crisis is very severe. A lot of federations want someone with experience. I don't mind being an outsider. [Barack] Obama was an outsider, Pope Francis was an outsider, Francois Hollande was an outsider. That is life."
Even though he is a rank outsider for the top job, Champagne may yet be involved in the next administration. He has the experience and appetite to be a secretary general.
WHAT KIND OF PRESIDENT WILL HE BE?
Champagne says he would do three things first if he won: kiss his wife, open a bottle of champagne and go out to celebrate. The next day he would set out to modernise FIFA.
He says he would be a hands-on president. In what could be construed as a thinly-veiled dig at Sheikh Salman, Champagne said some of his opponents wanted to be "the honorary president" while he wanted to be "the real president".
Champagne knows his way around FIFA, having worked in Zurich as an adviser to Blatter and as the deputy secretary general and the director of international relations. Before FIFA he was a sports journalist, a French diplomat and the head of protocol at the 1998 World Cup in France.
WHAT STANDS OUT IN HIS MANIFESTO?
It could be bad news for Europe if Champagne gets anywhere near the presidency. His proposals for re-allocating World Cup slots would lead to fewer places for Europe. At the moment Europe's 53 countries get 13 World Cup places while Africa's 54 countries get only five places.
Champagne says we need a fairer system and he does not think the answer is to expand the World Cup from 32 to 40 teams.
Less controversially, he wants to make FIFA more transparent, boost development programmes, raise the profile of women's football and introduce video technology to help referees. Champagne wants to double FIFA funding to the poorest 100 member associations, from £170,000 a year to £340,000 a year.
He would also try to move the 2022 Qatar World Cup back from winter to May and June.
WHAT DOES HE THINK OF SEPP BLATTER?
There are no hard feelings, even though he was fired by Blatter. Champagne thinks Blatter is an honest man who has made bad management decisions: "As far as we know he has not been accused of embezzlement. I'm sure that history will judge him differently than the current news. No-one can argue that he has revolutionised the game."
The two men are still in touch and Champagne phoned Blatter when the suspended president was released from hospital after a stress-related illness in November.
WHO DOES HE BLAME FOR THE FIFA CRISIS?
Champagne blames FIFA's problems on bad management and the greed of senior officials who wielded too much power with too little control.
He worked at FIFA from 1999 to 2010 and he has never been accused of corruption or dishonesty: "People in football know I am clean but I understand the scepticism. There's a difference between smelling something and having the evidence."
WHO DOES HE SUPPORT?
St Etienne and Barcelona. He grew up supporting St Etienne but he is also a paying member of Barcelona.
He says if he is elected he will remain a fan first: "I want to tell English fans that I am one of them. If elected, my biggest concern is to keep feeling the pulse of the fans."
Watch full coverage of the FIFA Presidential Election on February 26 on Sky Sports News HQ.
