The D-Day is here. The world football governing body will be seeing a new leader by the end of Friday, and football fans can just hope the winner of the FIFA Presidential Election 2016 does work out some really needful ideas to bring about a transformation to the much-tainted image of FIFA.
Five candidates -- Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, Gianni Infantino, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, Tokyo Sexwale and Jerome Champagne -- will be up against each other in an effort to become the ninth FIFA president replacing Sepp Blatter.
CLICK HERE to know more about the candidates and the vote counting process.
The 2016 FIFA Extraordinary Congress is scheduled to get underway at the Hallenstadion in Zurich, Switzerland, Friday, and the voting from 207 member associations of FIFA starts following a 15-minute address by the candidates to the FIFA Congress about their plans ahead for the world football governing body.
Member associations from CONCACAF, UEFA, AFC, OFC, CAF and CONMEBOL make up the 207-voter list (excluding Kuwait and Indonesia). As gathered from several reports so far, AFC President Sheikh Salman and UEFA General-Secretary Gianni Infantino look the favourites to replace Blatter.
One of the key points of Sheikh Salman's manifesto has been to split FIFA into two groups -- one that completely handles the business side and another that completely handles the football side. Infantino, on the other hand, wants to extend FIFA's Development Program across more countries and also wants the FIFA World Cup to feature 40 teams, so that smaller nations can participate as well.
While Sheikh Salman has the entire backing from Asia as well as Africa, Infantino has the backing from the English FA, the Scottish FA as well as the South American football confederation.
It's only a wait of a few hours now until the football fans get to find who the next FIFA President is. Good news for the fans, the entire FIFA Congress can be watched live.
Where to watch live
The 2016 FIFA Congress is expected to start at 12 p.m. GMT (5:30 p.m. IST, 7 a.m. EST), Feb. 26.
The first round of voting is also expected to start at 1:30 p.m. GMT (7 p.m. IST, 8:30 a.m. EST) and the result could likely be declared by about 5:30 p.m. GMT (11 p.m. IST, 12:30 p.m. EST), unless there is no further delay.
Viewers around the world (that means India too) can catch the event live on the FIFA Website and YouTube.
Also, in the UK, Sky Sports News HQ will broadcast the event with another live streaming option available on Watch ESPN.
In the US, FS1 will broadcast proceedings of the 2016 FIFA Congress and it is expected to be showcased until a new FIFA President has been declared.
The live updates of the FIFA Presidential Election 2016 can also be followed HERE.
