JOHANNESBURG: South American football federations will back UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino to succeed embattled Sepp Blatter as the next FIFA president.
Confirming the news, South American Football Confederation (SAFC) president Juan Angel Napout said that they would vote for Infantino as a block for the presidency.
According to Sport24, 45-year-old Infantino, however, insisted that he would not stand in the elections if UEFA president Michel Platini will be allowed to do so.
Blatter and Platini are serving a 90-day provisional ban handed by the FIFA's Ethics Committee over claims that the latter had received a 'disloyal payment' of 1.35 million pounds from the outgoing president in 2011.
Platini could stand to replace Blatter as next president only if his ban ends before the election date.
Besides Infantino, six other candidates namely UEFA president Platini, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, Liberia's FA president Musa Bility, Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman, former diplomat Jerome Champagne and South African businessman Tokyo Sexwale, will also run in the race for 26th February election.