Van Praag calls for one European hopeful

Dutch football chief believes he is the ideal candidate for FIFA presidency.

AMSTERDAM: Dutch Football Association President Michael van Praag believes he and former Portugal international Luis Figo have no chance of unseating Sepp Blatter in the FIFA leadership elections if they both stand against the Swiss.

“That’s what I think and [UEFA president] Michel Platini too,” van Praag was quoted as saying by Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf on Saturday. “I don’t know what Figo thinks about that, but it would be much better for Europe if we presented one candidate.”

Predictably, van Praag said he was the better option. “Figo is more photogenic. All the South American member association presidents wanted to take their photo with him. But they didn’t want to say if they would vote for him,” said the Dutchman on his return from the CONMEBOL Congress in Paraguay this week.

Both were lobbying for support for the election at the end of May, where they are up against Blatter and Jordan’s Prince Ali bin alHussein — another ally of Platini.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 8^th, 2015.

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