Fifa crisis: Prince Ali warns against delaying presidential election in light of Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini suspensions
Fifa presidential candidate Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein has warned Fifa not to delay in electing Sepp Blatter's replacement following "recent instability" at football's governing body.
Current incumbent Blatter and Uefa boss Michel Platini were suspended for 90 days by Fifa's Ethics Committee last week, leading to suggestions that Fifa's Executive Committee could postpone February's election.
Read more: Fifa suspends president Sepp Blatter and Uefa's Michel Platini
The Jordanian royal, trumped by Blatter at an election in May, told Fifa that it should not be swayed to interfere with the set date of the election.
He warned that "football associations, players, coaches and fans the world over are watching…the rules should not be changed after the game has started".
Prince Ali said:
With Fifa's crisis deepening, the organisation needs to move beyond interim leadership and elect an accountable president.
Delaying the scheduled election would only postpone needed change and create further instability. It would tell the world that lessons haven't been learned, that the same backroom deals that have discredited Fifa in the first place continue.
Platini is a rival candidate to Prince Ali, who along with Blatter is appealing his suspension and denies any wrongdoing.
The pair, along with general secretary Jerome Valcke, were suspended by Fifa's ethics committee as it investigates a contentious £1.3m payment Blatter made to Platini in 2011 for work conducted years earlier.