David Nakhid today filed an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against FIFA’s refusal to accept his candidature for its upcoming presidential election. On 28 October, the FIFA Ad-hoc Electoral Committee found that Nakhid (pictured at Play The Game) had not presented declarations of support from five member associations, as required by Article 13(c) of the Electoral Regulations for the FIFA Presidency.

‘In appealing to the CAS, Mr Nakhid seeks the annulment of the challenged decision and an order that his candidacy be reinstated’, read a CAS statement. ‘No hearing date has been fixed for the moment. A procedural calendar will be determined within the next days, after consultation with the parties.’

Nakhid, a former Trinidad & Tobago national team player, was disqualified as US Virgin Islands President Hillaren Frederick had also nominated another candidate. In a posting on his FIFA Presidential candidacy Facebook page, he suggested that his disqualification was politically motivated.

‘This fight of rectitude is just beginning’, read the post. ‘The 35 votes from the Caribbean are instrumental in this race, so getting rid of the lone Caribbean candidate (CONCACAF) is to make it easier for the others who represent the old order…Nakhid’s legal team is working on the appeal against his disqualification from the list of official candidates announced by Fifa and the false rumours being spread to sully his reputation. There are no co-incidences. There are many deals being brokered, interests being aligned and cooperation among “seeming” opponents to uphold the status quo.’

The FIFA Presidential election is scheduled to take place at an Extraordinary Congress on 26 February. The five candidates admitted by FIFA on 9 November are: HRH Prince Ali Al Hussein of Jordan; Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, President of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC); Jérôme Champagne, former Director of International Relations at FIFA and advisor to Joseph S. Blatter; Gianni Infantino, UEFA General Secretary; and Tokyo Sexwale, a South African politician.

‘The final integrity check reports and the comments submitted by the candidates were provided to the members of the Ad-hoc Electoral Committee and evaluated to determine whether each of the candidates fulfilled the requirements for the presidency as outlined in the FIFA Statutes and Regulations’, read FIFA’s 9 November statement. On 3 November, the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) sent a complaint to FIFA detailing Sheikh Salman’s alleged connections to human rights abuses carried out against footballers and others in 2011. BIRD has asked FIFA to be disqualified from FIFA’s Presidential race for breaching Article 19(2) of FIFA’s Code of Ethics.