CAS to rule on Prince Ali's FIFA voting-booth appeal
February 23, 2016
The Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said on Tuesday that it had "registered an appeal and request for urgent provisional measures" against last week's decision by FIFA in which it rejected the prince's request that transparent voting booths be used in the presidential election.
It said the prince was seeking not just the transparent booths but also "scrutineers" to ensure that the integrity of the voting process and that it be conducted in secret.
"FIFA has been invited to file written observations in reply to Prince Ali's request," the statement said. The court also pledged to issue a ruling on the matter by no later than Thursday morning local time.
The statement came a few hours after the reports emerged that the prince was seeking a postponement of Friday's vote, after FIFA had turned down his request for the changes to the voting procedure. However, in its statement, the CAS did not mention the prince's call for a delay.
Having rejected the Jordanian prince's offer to make transparent booths available for the Congress, FIFA has said it would instead ask voters to leave their mobile phones outside while choosing between the five candidates, who also include Jerome Champagne, UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino, Tokyo Sexwale of South Africa and Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa of Bahrain.
Prince Ali's lawyers said that requesting delegates to surrender their phones was "not sufficient."
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