President of the Liberian Football Association, Musa Bility, has declared he is running for the top job in world football, the Fifa president.
He joins former Brazil international as the two candidates to have announced plans to become Sepp Blatter’s successor.
The 48-year-old is the second African to make a bid to become Fifa president after current Confederation of African Football (Caf) president Issa Hayatou, who lost to Blatter in the 2002 election.
Authorities in the U.S. and Switzerland are currently investigating FIFA over allegations of corruption.
Blatter had, on 2 June, announced he would step down as president amid allegations of bribery and racketeering charges among high ranking officials and corruption surrounding the decision to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cup finals in Russia and Qatar.
Among Bility’s plans for Fifa is re-establishing a ten-year understanding with Interpol against match-fixing, which was suspended last Friday over allegation of corruption against the football governing body.
He wants the current Fifa crisis to be dealt with in transparent fashion, a reduction in the power of the 24-person Executive Committee (ExCo), redefine relationships with sponsors, an improvement in the financing of poorer member nations and ease with which funds are received, and a statutory requirement for Fifa officials to declare their assets before joining the organisation.
He has yet to received any backing of the five member associations required to validate his candidacy, but is confident he will get them.
In 2013, Caf handed Bility a six-month ban for violating statutes relating to the use of confidential documents – a punishment the Liberian claimed came as a result of his attempt to tackle African football’s ruling body.
Fifa will hold an extraordinary meeting of its ExCos for July, when the date for an extraordinary congress for the election of Fifa president will be decided. The date for the election are expected between December 2015 and March 2016.
