FIFA confirms official list of five presidential election candidates

FIFA has written to its 209 members with an official list of the candidates who will be standing in the presidential election on February 26.

In the letter, signed by acting secretary general Markus Kattner, FIFA has confirmed that the five candidates are, in alphabetical order:

HRH Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein (Jordan), Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa (Bahrain), Jerome Champagne (France), Gianni Infantino (Italy/Switzerland) and Tokyo Sexwale (Africa).

Who is going to win?

The favourites at the moment are Sheikh Salman and Gianni Infantino. Both can count on large blocks of votes from their own confederations.

The new president will be elected in a secret ballot of FIFA's 209 member associations. As president of the Asian Football Confederation, Sheikh Salman can count on most of Asia's 46 votes.

Infantino has the full backing of the UEFA executive committee and he is likely to receive most of Europe's 53 votes.

Bookmakers made Prince Ali the early favourite, but that was based almost entirely on the fact that he got about a third of the votes when he challenged Sepp Blatter for the presidency last May.

Most of his Prince Ali's 73 votes last year came from UEFA, but it will be backing Infantino this time.

Some insiders believe Prince Ali will get between 20 and 30 votes next month. 

Who has had the most impressive campaign?

Infantino's campaign has momentum, but that may be because he needs it to make up ground on Sheikh Salman.

The globetrotting UEFA general secretary is in Paraguay on Tuesday for the South American Football Confederation Congress and he will be pitching for its 10 votes.

On Monday, the Central American Football Union declared that its seven votes would be going to Infantino.

Infantino is returning to Europe this week and he will host a special event at Wembley next Monday. The FA will almost certainly back him, although that will be a board decision which will be made only after FA chairman Greg Dyke has met all the candidates. FA vice-chairman David Gill has described Infantino as "the stand-out candidate".

Is there a chance of any deals between the candidates?   

Many FIFA watchers believe we could end up with a Sheikh Salman and Infantino dream ticket. In that scenario, Sheikh Salman would be president and Infantino would be his secretary general.

Sheikh Salman made it clear this week that he was open to the possibility of discussing a deal with Infantino, but Infantino appeared to rule that out when he was asked about it after the UEFA executive committee meeting on Friday.

Will any candidates pull out before the election?

An important date to look out for is Friday February 5. The African Football Confederation is meeting in Rwanda and it is likely to announce who it will be backing. It has 54 votes and has already signed a controversial memorandum of understanding with Sheikh Salman.

The South African businessman Tokyo Sexwale may be tempted to pull out if he fails to get the backing of the African confederation. Sexwale, though, says he is fully committed and wants to fight until the end.

How will the election work?  

The new president will be elected in a secret ballot at the FIFA Congress in Zurich on February 26.   

Each one of FIFA's 209 member associations has one vote.

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.