FIFA: South African Tokyo Sexwale announces he will stand for the FIFA presidency on 26/02/2016

The South African Tokyo Sexwale announced his candidacy for the FIFA presidency on 24/10/2015, two days before the deadline for submission of applications on Monday 26/10/2015. The elections are scheduled to take place on 26/02/2016 in Zurich (SUI). Sexwale did not specify whether he has obtained the formal support of five national federations, as is required in the FIFA statutes.

Tokyo Sexwale is the ninth person (see the list below) to state his intention to become the president of FIFA. The 62 year old businessman, a former South African Minister and close friend of Nelson Mandela (with whom he was imprisoned for 13 years on Robben Island), is chairman of the FIFA Israel-Palestine Monitoring Committee, formed in June 2015, which aims to "remove obstacles to good relations between football organisations in Israel and Palestine."

"The South African Federation unanimously supports Tokyo Sexwale's bid," said the SAFA in a statement, on 24/10/2015.