Friday 26 February 2016 12:50, UK
FIFA will vote in its first new president since 1998 on Friday, despite two of its candidates attempting to suspend the election just days before it.
Jerome Champagne was told his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) had been rejected on Thursday, two days after fellow candidate Prince Ali bin al-Hussein hit the same brick wall.
Champagne and Hussein join the favourite Sheikh Salman and Swiss Gianni Infantino on the ballot, with 207 votes up for grabs from the world's football associations.
The key figure in the first round of votes is 138. If any of the candidates pick up 138 votes in the first round, they will win the presidency, but given the voting projections, that is not expected to happen.
If it goes to a second round, the candidate with the fewest votes in the first round is eliminated, with the first candidate to get 50 per cent of the votes (104) then elected president.
Salman, the president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), has received the backing of his association as well as the Confederation of African Football, which has the largest voting bloc.
Several AFC associations have broken rank on Salman and backed Hussein, including his native Jordan, while Frenchman Champagne has expected to receive the vote of west African nation Guinea-Bissau.
Infantino has received the backing of UEFA, including the English FA, so the voting of the North, Central and South American nations is expected to have huge influence in the outcome.
On the day the disgraced Sepp Blatter, who had his eight-year ban from football upheld this week, is finally replaced, FA chairman Greg Dyke warned the world governing body could not be allowed to repeat its past mistakes.
Dyke compared his first FIFA congress in 2014 to North Korea's regime and hopes that is behind the world governing body.
"Dare I make the prediction that if Mr Blatter was standing this time, he might well win. That's because a lot of people in football don't get it," he said.
"The cult of Blatter is no more. What we've got to make sure is the cult of someone else doesn't replace him. We don't want cults any more. We want a properly-run organisation.
"What I think will change is you will no longer have an all-powerful president who will be able to dish largesse around the world in exchange for votes."
