FIFA: why Michel Platini's candicacy deadline is technically 26/01/2016 and not 26/02/2016

The Extraordinary FIFA Congress which will elect the new president of the international federation is scheduled for Friday 26/02/2016, however Tuesday 26/01/2016, one month earlier, is the final deadline for which the potential candidacy of Michel Platini must be validated by the FIFA Ad hoc Electoral Committee.

The reason appears in Article 24*, Paragraph 2 of the FIFA Statutes: "The General Secretariat will forward the names of proposed candidates to the member associations at least one month before the date of the congress." The "member associations" are the 209 national federations which elect the president of the international federation.

Michel Platini, UEFA president since 2007, was suspended for 90 days on 08/10/2015 by the FIFA Ethics Committee. He is accused of having received, from FIFA on 01/02/2011, "2 million Swiss francs (about €1.54m at the time of payment), allegedly for work performed between January 1999 and June 2002", according Swiss Justice, which has opened a criminal case against Joseph Blatter on 25/09/2015.

• Article 24* of the FIFA Statutes concerns…