Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein To Challenge Sepp Blatter For Presidency

Fifa vice-president Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein will challenge incumbent Sepp Blatter for the leadership of world football's governing body. The Jordanian Prince, 39, will stand as a candidate at Fifa's presidential election on 29 May, where Blatter, 78, will seek a fifth term of office. Prince Ali said: "It is time to shift the focus away from administrative controversy and back to sport. "The headlines should be about football, not about Fifa." Who is Prince Ali? Prince Ali became president of Jordanian football in 1999 before being elected as the Asian Football Confederation's Fifa vice-president in 2011. He has successfully championed the lifting of Fifa's ban on the hijab in women's football and was also one of a number of officials who called for the publication of Michael Garcia's report into allegations of corruption surrounding the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids. Prince Ali said he had been encouraged to stand by colleagues. "The message I heard, over and over, was that it is time for a change," the head of the Jordanian and West Asian Football Federations said. "The world game deserves a world-class governing body - an international federation that is a service organisation and a model of ethics, transparency and good governance. "Fifa exists to serve a sport which unites billions of people from all over the world, people of differing and divergent political, religious and social affiliations, who come together in their enjoyment of 'the world's game'." Last month, former England captain Gary Lineker described the way Fifa was running world football as "a farce" after the governing body became embroiled in allegations of World Cup bidding corruption.