As former world footballer of the year Luis Figo and the Jordanian royal Prince Ali bin al-Hussein unveiled details of their campaigns to unseat the Fifa president Sepp Blatter, David Ginola’s attempt was over before it had begun.
Less than 24 hours after sending out a statement insisting he was “not giving up” and would be continuing his campaign without the backing of the bookmaker that had paid him £250,000 to stand, Ginola admitted he had not received the required five nominations.
The former France international had already promised to return the £6,300 pledged by members of the public to a 14-day campaign that had been widely criticised for its links to a bookmaker well known for publicity stunts.
“Today I have mixed emotions. There is disappointment, anger but there is also hope,” he said. “I’m very proud of my campaign and the policies I proposed to reform football.”
Figo, who said his campaign had got off to a “great start” and unveiled Raúl and Deco as his latest big name supporters, confirmed that his six nominations all came from European FAs: Portugal, Denmark, Montenegro, Macedonia, Luxembourg and Poland.
The Scottish FA was among five associations to back the Dutch FA president Michael van Praag, while the English FA nominated Prince Ali.
