The election of a new FIFA president will go ahead as planned on February 26 despite the suspensions of current president Joseph Blatter and leading candidate Michel Platini, the executive committee of the ruling body decided Tuesday.
The committee confirmed the original date at an extraordinary meeting called in the wake of 90-day suspensions by the FIFA ethics committee in early October.
The decision is believed to undermine Platini's ambitions for the FIFA top job, but FIFA opened a back door by saying that the mandatory integrity check for presidential candidates will be delayed in case of suspensions.
"Candidacies for the FIFA Presidency that are submitted in due time and form, but which relate to candidates who are subject to a (provisional or definite) ban from taking part in any football-related activity, will not be processed by the Ad-hoc Electoral Committee as long as such ban is valid and in force," FIFA said in a statement.
Platini submitted in his candidacy just ahead of the suspension and within the October 26 deadline.
Like Blatter he has protested his innocence in connection with a "disloyal payment" payment" of 2 million Swiss francs (2.1 million dollars) Blatter paid to Platini in 2011 and which is probed by Swiss prosecutors.
The FIFA appeals committee is yet to rule on Platini's appeal and he has said he would also go before the Court of Arbitration for Sport if necessary.
Blatter and Platini, absent on Tuesday because of the ethics committee ruling, are suspended until January 6. The ethics committee could extend the ban by 45 days until February 20, just six days before the extraordinary congress to elect the new president.
The executive committee Tuesday also allowed the ethics committee "to publish more information about its ongoing proceedings" for more transparency, and heard an interim report from the reform committee which proposes wide-ranging changes in governance in the wake of various corruption affairs.
