Only four months ago, Michel Platini was seen as the overwhelming favorite to succeed Sepp Blatter as FIFA president, but he has now withdrawn from the race following his eight-year banfrom soccer for breaches of FIFA’s ethics code. He is appealing the suspension, but in the meantime he is banned from campaigning and unlikely to be cleared — if at all — before the Jan. 26deadline, a month ahead of the election.
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“I’m withdrawing from the race for the FIFA presidency,” the 60-year-old Frenchman told the Associated Press. “The timing is not good for me. I don’thave the means to fight on equal terms with the other candidates. I have not been given the chance to play the game. Bye bye Fifa, bye bye Fifa presidency.”
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