2016 FIFA Extraordinary Congress such as the presidency. The deadline for candidates to formally present their nominations, with support of at least of five national federations, was 26 October 2015, 23:59 CET (22:59 GMT). Sepp Blatter was also a likely candidate, despite him saying that "I will not be a candidate for the election in 2016." Blatter previously said that he is "not resigning" before the announcement of the election date. On 28 October 2015, FIFA announced the names of the seven candidates to replace Sepp Blatter as its president. On 9 November 2015, the Ad-hoc Electoral Committee admitted and declared five candidates eligible
England 2018 FIFA World Cup bid stated that "the tone of this campaign has to be different. The board of "England 2018" was chaired by Lord Triesman, chairman of The FA, who has since resigned. He was joined by Geoffrey Thompson, vice president of FIFA; Lord Mawhinney, chairman of the Football League; Paul Elliott, who is the chairman of the Advisory Group to the bid; and Lord (Sebastian) Coe, who led London's successful bid for the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, is chairman of LOCOG, and who took leave of absence from his role as chairman of the FIFA Ethics Committee to join the bid