Michel Platini's damaged bid to become FIFA president was boosted Thursday when it emerged one of his main rivals could step aside if the Frenchman was cleared to run in the election. European football boss Platini's ambition to succeed his one time friend turned arch enemy Sepp Blatter is currently on hold as he serves a 90-day suspension. The ban was imposed over a "disloyal" $2 million (1.8 million euro) payment Platini received from Blatter on behalf of FIFA in 2011 for consultancy work carried out years before. But the UEFA chief's presidential chances improved with the news that Asian football head Shaikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa could withdraw from the FIFA contest should Platini emerge unscathed from the investigation. That exit strategy was raised by FIFA executive committee member Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah in an interview with Olympic watchdog website insidethegames.biz. Sheikh Ahmed, a prominent International Olympic Committee member who is close to Shaikh Salman, said: "I was a supporter for Michel, I still am a supporter for Michel. "I fully know that he's innocent but I don't know the system that will happen. "He paid all the tax for this (the payment) and is not hiding something, but the mechanism is creating a problem. "If he has the right to run we will support him. "From the beginning the will was with Michel as the successor of the house." And when asked if Shaikh Salman would pull out of the race rather than stand against Platini, he replied: "I think so. "I believe a lot of the candidates would withdraw." Aside from Shaikh Salman and Platini the other contenders in the Feb. 26 election are Jordan's Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein, Liberia's Musa Bility, Jerome Champagne of France, Switzerland's Gianni Infantino, and South African Tokyo Sexwale. Sheikh Ahmed's intervention came just hours after Platini had made an impassioned defense of his suitability to become the next head of FIFA. "In all modesty, I am the best-placed to lead world football," the 60-year-old former Juventus and France star told Swiss daily Le Matin. "I get the impression they don't want a former player running FIFA, as if they don't want to give football back to the players. But I am the only one who has a broad vision of football," the UEFA president added. Visa warning Major sponsor Visa has told FIFA that it could cut ties with soccer's scandal-tarnished governing body if the credit card company is not satisfied with the reforms being implemented. Visa vice chair Ellen Richey disclosed details of the renewed warning to FIFA while answering questions Wednesday at a British parliamentary hearing into the soccer corruption crisis. Richey appeared alongside executives from McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch, who stopped short of issuing the same threat over the futures of their sponsorships. Visa has reservations about the large number of people with existing ties to FIFA who are formulating governance changes. Sponsors and commercial partners contributed $1.6 billion of FIFA's $5.7 billion windfall in 2011-2014, which encompassed the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. — Agencies
