Luis Figo has pulled out of the Fifa presidential race with a stinging broadside against Sepp Blatter and the electoral process.
After the Dutch FA president, Michael van Praag, also withdrew, as expected, Blatter is left with the Jordanian former Fifa executive committee member Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein as his only challenger.
Figo, the former world footballer of the year who, like Van Praag, launched his candidacy with a strident speech and glossy manifesto, had been frustrated by Blatter’s refusal to countenance a public debate and compared his 17-year tenure to a “dictatorship”. The Portuguese former Barcelona and Real Madrid player said that the process was “anything but an election”.
“This process is a plebiscite for the delivery of absolute power to one man – something I refuse to go along with,” he said. “That is why, after a personal reflection and sharing views with two other candidates in this process, I believe that what is going to happen on May 29 in Zurich is not a normal electoral act.”
Blatter, who has been president since 1998, is widely expected to win the election in a landslide. He's so confident that he'll be reelected that he didn't even bother publishing a platform.
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