Sepp Blatter vs Prince Ali: FIFA election explained

Sepp Blatter and Prince Ali: Election rivals

FIFA's presidential election will take place in Zurich on Friday with Sepp Blatter, who is bidding for a fifth term in office, going up against Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan.

The pair will both have an opportunity to address the FIFA Congress and each of FIFA's 209 associations then has one vote in a secret ballot which takes place in alphabetical order.
If either candidate achieves two-thirds of the eligible vote (140) in the first round, then he wins outright.
If there is no outright victory in the first round, the winner will simply be whoever gains more votes in the second round, so the target is 105 votes.
The winner will not face the media on Friday, as scheduled, after FIFA decided to put back the post-election press conference until Saturday.
There are six confederations involved with the voting, including UEFA which has 53 members, headed up by Michel Platini.

UEFA president Michel Platini flew into Zurich on Thursday and personally told his old friend Sepp Blatter the time had come to step down

Platini said on Thursday that a large majority of the UEFA members will be voting for Prince Ali.
The Asian Football Confederation has seven votes fewer than UEFA and its president Sheikh Salman expects his members to vote for Blatter, although Australia will not be.
Blatter can also expect support from Issa Hayatou's African Football Confederation, which has the most members with 54, a total alone which would take the current president more than halfway to his victory target.
CONCACAF has a new president heading into the election after Jeffrey Webb's arrest earlier in the week.

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Alfredo Hawit of Honduras is his replacement and he oversees 35 votes from North and Central America and the Caribbean, the majority of which are also expected to go to Blatter, although the United States and Canada are set to vote for Prince Ali.
The South American Football Confederation is led by Juan Angel Napout. It has just 10 votes - the fewest of the six confederations - but they are also likely to be in favour of the Swiss.
Oceania has one more vote - FIFA vice-president David Chung heading up that confederation - and it previously indicated its 11 members would support incumbent Blatter, but New Zealand have now switched their allegiance to the challenger.