The former Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur star launched his campaign earlier this month after bookmaker Paddy Power had come up with the idea of backing a challenger to Blatter, who is running for a fifth term at the helm of football's world governing body.

Paddy Power, who paid Ginola £250,000 ($327,000/€380,000) to run for election, called on the public to help raise £2.3 million ($3.5 million/€3 million) to fund the campaign, but as the deadline for official submissions approached at 11pm today, "Team Ginola" appeared to call time on the bid.

"A huge thank you for supporting Team Ginola," read a statement on the campaign's website.

"The crowdfunding page is now closed.

"All donations will be returned to those that have pledged.

"The fight is not over.

"Football still needs to change.

"I urge you to continue to vocalise your craving for change in football in whatever way you can.

"Let it be known that no matter how small you think your voice may be alone, if we speak together we will be heard.

"Whilst FIFA may not be an open democracy for the footballing public, our opinions will be heeded, only if we persist."

David Ginola's Tweet appears to contradict the statement about his campaign to run for President of FIFA on his campaign's website ©Twitter



But, shortly after the statement was published, Ginola, who had to prove to FIFA he had played an "active role" in football for two of the past five years and show he had the support of five National Associations to be eligible, Tweeted a contradictory stance.

The list of qualified candidates for the election is set to be made public on either February 7 or 8 and the 47-year-old Ginola, who received just 11 per cent of the amount needed to fund his campaign, is still holding out hope. 

"Not giving up, still in the race to reboot football!," he said.

"Will not give up...final nomination results might not be known before 8th February..."

Paddy Power himself confirmed yesterday that the bookmaker is no longer involved with the campaign. 

"We're really proud to have been involved in giving the Team Ginola bid a good leg up, but the plan was always for us to step away from the action at this point - and we're sticking to that," he said.

"There's been a brilliant response from the fans to the campaign, which is everything we hoped for given David's manifesto is all about giving the game back to them.

"Even though our part in Team Ginola is over, we're all rooting for David in his continuing bid to take on the FIFA giants."

Should Ginola still manage to make the list of qualified candidates, his challengers are likely to include former Portugal captain Luis Figo, head of the Royal Dutch Football Association Michael van Praag, Jordan's Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein and France's former FIFA Executive Jérôme Champagne.

Figo, meanwhile, confirmed today that he had received six nominations from Associations to ensure he could stand. 

They are Portugal, Denmark, Montenegro, Macedonia, Luxembourg and Poland.

The election is due to take place during the FIFA Congress in Zurich on May 29.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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