Shaikh Salman and Infantino blow open FIFA presidency race

Bahrain's Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim al Khalifa and UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino blew the race to succeed Sepp Blatter as FIFA president wide open as the bidding process closed at midnight.
Eight candidates had confirmed their bids but FIFA will not publish the final list until later today.
Swiss lawyer Infantino's campaign in particular will come as a huge blow to suspended UEFA president Michel Platini's own faltering hopes in the February election.
Asian football chief Shaikh Salman pledged to get the scandal-tainted FIFA organisation "back on the right track", but the biggest shock-waves were created by the multilingual Infantino, who has the "full backing" of UEFA's Executive Committee.

Infantino's announcement would appear to place Platini, who is currently serving a 90-day ban as investigations continue into a 1.8 million euro ($2 million) payment received from FIFA in 2011 without a written contract, in an uncomfortable position.
"We believe that Gianni Infantino has all of the qualities required to tackle the major challenges ahead and to lead the organisation on a path of reform to restore FIFA's integrity and credibility," said UEFA.

"We are delighted that Gianni has agreed to stand and he knows that he has our full support in his campaign to become FIFA President."
Erstwhile favourite Platini officially remains a contender pending an examination of his candidacy when his ban ends on January 5.

Ten days ago, UEFA had pointedly failed to express explicit backing for its president after a crisis meeting at their headquarters in Nyon.
Infantino's announcement casts doubt over Platini's support within UEFA and poses the question on whether Infantino is being presented as a Plan B in case the former France star is prevented from standing.
FIFA's electoral committee must judge the integrity of all candidates, meaning Platini's bid could be compromised by his ban.
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Platini's lawyers confirmed he had had a first appeal against his ban rejected on Monday, but the case is still to go before FIFA's appeals committee and his lawyers said they remained "convinced the appeals will eventually show his complete integrity and restore all his rights."

Asian football chief Shaikh Salman also left it late to officially announce that he had entered the race to succeed Blatter.
The 49-year-old Bahraini royal has been the head of the Asian Football Confederation since 2013 and is familiar with FIFA from his role as a vice-president. He previously supported Platini's bid.