The ex-South African government minister and apartheid activist was recently appointed to lead a FIFA committee monitoring Palestine and Israel ‘to oversee issues affecting the development of football in Palestine’.

Now he joins Prince Ali Al Hussein, Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, Jérôme Champagne and Gianni Infantino in the race to land the beautiful game’s top job.

A FIFA statement read: “Pursuant to FIFA’s Electoral Regulations and the FIFA Organisation Regulations, the investigatory chamber of the Ethics Committee conducted integrity checks on the candidates.

“This two-step process involved first creating detailed reports of risk-relevant information relating to each candidate. The integrity check included a review of corporate records, litigation cases, bankruptcy proceedings, potential regulatory actions taken against the candidate and a review of media reports concerning potential red flags (fraudulent behaviour, match manipulation, human rights violations, etc.). Each candidate was then asked to comment on the content of the detailed report produced.

“The final integrity check reports and the comments submitted by the candidates were provided to the members of the Ad-hoc Electoral Committee and evaluated to determine whether each of the candidates fulfilled the requirements for the presidency as outlined in the FIFA Statutes and Regulations.”

Suspended UEFA president Michel Platini has been dropped from the list, as has Liberian candidate Musa Hassan Bility.

FIFA explained: “The Ad-hoc Electoral Committee did not admit the candidature of Musa Hassan Bility, in view of the content of the integrity check report relating to him.

“For reasons of protection of personality rights, the Ad-hoc Electoral Committee – while it has explained its considerations in detail to Musa Hassan Bility – will not comment publicly on the specifics of its decision.”