ZURICH: Musa Bility, still seething at his exclusion from the FIFA presidency contest, is threatening to complain to the Court of Arbitration for Sport is Domenico Scala does not step down as head of the world football federation’s electoral commission writes KEIR RADNEDGE.
The head of the Liberian football association was debarred from standing as a candidate in the election to succeed disgraced and banned Sepp Blatter in Zurich on February after failing an initial integrity test.
Last weekend Bility also cast doubt on the ability of the African confederation’s executive committee to persuade more than half of CAF’s membership to follow its endorsement of Asian federation leader Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa for the top job in the world game.
Now, according to a BBC report, Bility is stirring up more trouble for Scala who also heads FIFA’s audit and compliance ‘policy’ committee and created a blueprint for the reforn proposals to be put before congress later this month.
Scala came under pressure at the weekend from reform agitator Jamie Fuller for approving the candidacy of Sheikh Salman despite allegations – which the Bahraini denies – about his role in a crackdown on human rights protesters in 2011.
Bility is complaining, among other issues, that Scala should step down as electoral overseer because he is Swiss-Italian just like Gianni Infantino, the general secretary of European federation UEFA who is one of the other presidency candidates.
Bility told the BBC he had written to Scala pointing out that “Article 7.4 of the electoral regulations is clear that any member of the electoral committee who has a conflict of interest . . . is thereby barred from sitting as a member of the committee and must be replaced.”
In February last year – ahead of elections in May 2015 between Blatter and Prince Ali of Jordan – both Scala and Claudio Sulser, who was also on the committee, stepped aside for this reason.
Bility said: “For some reason, this time around you have not withdrawn.
“Following an unprecedented period of sustained turmoil and damage for Fifa as an institution, the fairness and integrity of the current electoral process are absolutely vital for FIFA.
“If we do not receive confirmation from the ad-hoc electoral committee within three working days of receipt of this latter that you are stepping down … with immediate effect, the Liberian FA reserves its right to challenge that decision by all available routes.”
On Saturday, the Liberian pledged his vote to Prince Ali while urging his fellow Africans to do the same.
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