GENEVA -- With Michel Platini expected to be ruled out of the FIFA presidential election because of his suspension, UEFA made a surprising last-minute decision Monday to throw its support behind the Frenchman's right-hand man.
Gianni Infantino, the general secretary under Platini for the last six years, joined a growing field of contenders by filing his entry papers with FIFA after an emergency UEFA executive committee meeting held via video conference.
Another Platini ally, Asian soccer confederation president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, also joined the field, exposing his native Bahrain to scrutiny for its human rights record.
On a deadline day full of late tactical changes, Liberian soccer federation president Musa Bility also entered the race.
Bility's candidacy to replace Sepp Blatter in the Feb. 26 election comes two months after his campaign seemed over when African soccer leaders refused to support him.
"I don't want to go into any race that I cannot win," Bility told The Associated Press, saying more than 25 of the 54 African voting federations offered to nominate him.
Bility joined the race one day after longtime African soccer confederation president Issa Hayatou -- the interim FIFA president while Blatter is suspended -- met with Sheikh Salman in Cairo.
Sheikh Salman previously supported Platini's campaign but decided to seek the top job himself after the UEFA president was suspended for 90 days in a FIFA ethics investigation. Blatter was suspended as part of the same investigation into approving a $2 million payment to Platini from FIFA funds in 2011.
Infantino was already viewed as a contender to be appointed FIFA secretary general, and gives UEFA another option if FIFA's election committee bars Platini as a candidate. His candidacy also could strengthen a Europe-Asia alliance that seemed decisive earlier in the campaign.
"I am very proud of what we have achieved at UEFA and the way in which we conduct ourselves as an organization," said Infantino, a Swiss lawyer.
Other probable candidates vying for the FIFA job include Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, South African tycoon Tokyo Sexwale, former FIFA official Jerome Champagne and David Nakhid, a former player from Trinidad and Tobago.
Prince Ali, a former FIFA vice-president, cut ties with Platini after losing to Blatter in the election in May. That was held amid a crisis provoked by American and Swiss federal investigations of corruption which have forced Blatter to leave office early.
Sexwale, an Apartheid-era political prisoner, was appointed by Blatter to improve relations between the Israeli and Palestinian soccer bodies; Champagne, a former diplomat from France, was a senior FIFA official for 11 years under Blatter; Nakhid has career links to a Blatter aide.
Sheikh Salman's entry has already been criticized by rights groups who urged FIFA's election committee to reject him as a candidate when it conducts integrity checks in the next two weeks.
Questions have been raised over whether Sheikh Salman adequately protected Bahrain national team players after some took part in pro-democracy protests in 2011. Some players say they were tortured while detained by government forces when the sheikh was head of the Bahrain Football Association.
- AP sports writer Rob Harris in Manchester, England, contributed to this report.
