FIFA will have a new president on 26 February. After 18 years, Sepp Blatters controversial reign will come to an official end at the FIFA Congress in Zurich. Five candidates want to replace Blatter and become the most powerful man in world football, and whoever wins will become the ninth elected president in FIFAs 112-year history.The new president will be elected in a secret ballot of FIFAs 209 member associations, but Kuwait and Indonesia are banned, so there may be only 207 votes up for grabs. Africa has 54 votes, Europe 53, Asia 46, North and Central America and the Caribbean 35, Oceania 11 and South America 10.A candidate needs two thirds of the votes to win in the first round. In subsequent rounds, the candidate with the lowest number of votes drops out and a simple majority is required to win.During the past three months, Sky Sports News HQ has interviewed all five candidates - Sheikh Salman of Bahrain, Gianni Infantino, Prince Ali of Jordan, Jerome Champagne and Tokyo Sexwale.Over the next week we will profile each candidate, study their manifestos and assess their chances. Today, we start with Sheikh Salman. Salman is currently president of the Asian Football Confederation SHEIKH SALMAN OF BAHRAIN:WHY IS HE STANDING?Sheikh Salman did not intend to stand for the top job in world football this year. He decided to enter the race only when it became clear that Michel Platinis bid was in serious trouble.In May 2013, Salman was elected president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Blatter and Platini were in Kuala Lumpur, as Salman received 33 of the 46 votes.Last May, the AFC backed Blatter to serve a fifth term as FIFA president.Salman and the AFC were going to back Platini this time, until details emerged of the £1.3m payment Platini had received from FIFA in 2011, a payment which had been signed off by Blatter without a written contract and a payment which led to both men being banned from football.With Platini out of the running, the AFC needed their own man in the race and that man was Salman.It is worth bearing in mind, though, that Salman would have stepped aside if Platini had cleared his name in time to re-enter the race.WHAT ARE HIS CHANCES?Sheikh Salman is the clear favourite and his chances look good. He can count on the majority of Asias 46 votes and he is confident of securing many of Africas 54 votes.Last month, the AFC signed a controversial memorandum of understanding with the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the CAF executive committee has endorsed him.Salmans team believe he will receive 18 of the 25 votes of the Caribbean Football Union and 5 of the 10 votes of the South American CONMEBOL confederation.Theoretically, he should have the votes he needs to win in the second round, but this is a secret ballot and there is no guarantee that he will get the votes he has been promised.The other four candidates will all pick up votes in Africa and some member associations have already broken ranks and publicly endorsed Prince Ali, Gianni Infantino and Jerome Champagne.As the frontrunner, Salman has not had to do as much travelling and campaigning as his nearest challenger Infantino. Salmans team expect him to receive between 70 and 80 votes in the first round. Salman plans to split FIFA into two parts if he is elected WHAT KIND OF PRESIDENT WILL HE BE?He will be a non-executive president and will delegate responsibility. Many people think FIFA needs a more hands-on approach at a time of crisis. Salman, though, is convinced that his light-touch leadership style is the way forward. He calls FIFA a phoenix project and he believes he is the man who can lift the organisation from its ashes.Richard Scudamore has been talked about as a potential FIFA secretary general in a Salman administration, but it is highly unlikely that the Premier League executive chairman would want to have anything to do with FIFA.Salmans top executive will not necessarily have a football background, but he will be a turnaround expert.Salman also wants to set up a board of advisers from within the game. The great and the good will be invited to Zurich on a regular basis. Sir Alex Ferguson is one of the names on Salmans list of potential advisers.Salman has tried repeatedly to draw a line under allegations that he was involved in the identification of athletes and footballers who were imprisoned and tortured in Bahrain in 2011. He says he can guarantee that no-one was tortured under his authority but the questions have not gone away and there will be more of them if he becomes FIFA president.WHAT STANDS OUT IN HIS MANIFESTO? Salman says he does not want to be paid, but he will publish the salaries of other senior officials.He wants to divide FIFA into two parts. There will be Business FIFA and Football FIFA.This separation should, in theory, ensure that corruption scandals are a thing of the past. Or, as Salman puts it: Only by strictly separating the generation of funds and supervising the flow of all monies spent can we guarantee the rebirth of FIFA. Other candidates have talked about expanding the World Cup from 32 to 40 teams, but Salman believes this is a policy designed to attract votes from countries who have trouble qualifying for the tournament.Speaking during a presentation in Miami on 11 February, Salman said: Promises of more World Cup places during an election are unprofessional. He says any changes need to be properly studied and debated before they are introduced. Blatter has done many good things according to Sheikh Salman WHAT DOES HE THINK OF SEPP BLATTER?Like all the other candidates, Salman does not want to criticise Blatter in public. Blatter received almost two-thirds of the votes at the presidential election last May and there are still many member associations who think he has been treated unfairly. Salman - and the other candidates - need their votes, so any criticism is always qualified with praise.Salman says he has known Blatter since 1998. He says Blatter has done many good things. He thinks Blatter made a mistake by not standing down at the end of his fourth term. He still respects Blatter: We have to carry on the good work that has been done but in a different way. I have respect for him and his contribution for the game. Life has changed, we have to turn a page.WHO DOES HE BLAME FOR THE FIFA CRISIS?Salman believes FIFAs problems have been caused by rogue elements in confederations which are beyond FIFAs control. He blames individuals in the CONCACAF and CONMEBOL region and says FIFAs problems have to be put into context: Other sports are much worse. You look at athletics and tennis and the doping and fixing - there are much worse cases than FIFA.WHO DOES HE SUPPORT?Manchester United. Salman says he started supporting United in the 80s. His favourite United players are Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes. He admits that watching the current United team can be boring. Watch full coverage of the FIFA Presidential Election on 26 February on Sky Sports News HQ. Also See: FA to back Infantino Platini upbeat Blatter appeal to be heard Air Max Shoes Wholesale China . Perhaps Carroll was so prepared for a break because he believes there is very little the Seattle Seahawks need heading into the off-season. "I dont see anything that we need to add. We just have to get better," Carroll said. Cheap Wholesale Air Max Shoes . The (11-11-4) Jets are seventh in the Central Division with 26 points. Fifth place Dallas and sixth-seeded Nashville also have 26 points, but the Stars have three games in hand on Winnipeg while Nashville has two. http://www.wholesaleairmaxforsale.com/ .Y. -- Marcell Dareus and the Buffalo Bills defence made life miserable for Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco. Wholesale Air Max Shoes Sale . After slipping from the summit during the week, the Gunners overcame struggling Crystal Palace 2-0 on Sunday thanks to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlains second-half brace. China Wholesale Nike Air Max Shoes . Once again Jordan Cieciwa (@FitCityJordan) and I (@LynchOnSports) go head to head in our picks. Last weekend at UFC Fight Night 32 my #TeamLynch got the best of #TeamJC by a score of 9-6. Let us know which side youre on for UFC 167 use the hashtag #TeamLynch or #TeamJC on Twitter. The jerseys are now on sale.The practice and pre-tournament schedules are set.The international flights have been booked.And so the clock ticks ever steadily toward the start of the World Cup of Hockey. In fact, one month from Wednesday the tournament -- which runs Sept. 17-Oct. 1, every game being at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto -- will begin with a doubleheader featuring Team USA and Team Europe in a matinee, and the Czech Republic taking on host Canada in the late game.Heres a look at the biggest question facing each of the tournaments eight teams.Team USAWhich elite goalie will carry the load?Sure, there will be questions about where the scoring will come from and whether Brandon Dubinsky will indeed drive Sidney Crosby crazy starting when the U.S. and Canada meet on Day 4 of the tournament. But the real question is which of the Americans three elite goalies will be the No. 1? You can certainly make a case for Jonathan Quick, he of the two Stanley Cup rings and a playoff MVP trophy to boot, to be the man, although he was merely OK in the Los Angeles Kings first-round playoff loss to the San Jose Sharks?this past spring. Two-time Vezina Trophy finalist Ben Bishop, who has guided the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup finals and Eastern Conference finals the past two seasons, has emerged as a money goalie, and?Cory Schneider of the New Jersey Devils just might be the most technically sound of the three. No team in this tournament boasts as much depth in goal but picking the right goalie at the right time will be a key to Team USAs ultimate success.Team CanadaWill Price, Seguin and Benn be ready?Winners of the last two Olympic gold medals, the hosts certainly will be favored to win the World Cup while playing on home ice. As they should be. But one potentially vexing problem will be the health of key pieces of an impressive lineup. Carey Price, so dominant at the Sochi Olympics in giving up only three goals in five games with two shutouts, is coming off an injury-shortened season that saw him last play in late November. Then there are the Dallas Stars two stars: Tyler Seguin, who missed all but one of the last 23 games because of a partially torn Achilles tendon, and captain Jamie Benn, who is recovering from offseason abdominal surgery. Seguin told ESPN.com hes expecting to be fully ready for the World Cup. As for Benn, a member of the Sochi gold-medal team in 2014, he is also hopeful of being in the Canadian lineup next month. Still, thoss are lots of ifs for three key Canadian contributors.Team North AmericaWhat kind of difference will Matthews make?Weve gone from seeing Auston Matthews being a long shot for making the squad to now wondering just what kind of impact the No. 1 overall pick in June might have in the tournament with this speedy, talent-laden group of under-24s. The belief is that Matthews might start the tournament as the extra forward, but it would seem a shame not to have him in the lineup for the first game at the Air Canada Centre, given he was selected by the Toronto Maple Leafs. And I go back to comments made by a Canadian scout at the World Championships last spring who talked about Matthews emergence as a difference-maker and being a threat on almost every shift. My guess is that if the young stars are to prove a spoiler, or even more, Matthews will be a key factor.Team RussiaWill lack of depth on D spell an early exit?Nobody has the firepower up front that the Russians have with Vladimir Tarasenko, Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Pavel Datsyuk. But can anyone in the country play defense? Without Slava Voynov, banned from the tournament after charges of spousal abuse eventually forced him to leave North America for Russia a year ago, the Russian blue line is thin, which is an insult to thin things everywhere. Andrei Markov, 37, is the cornerrstone of a group that includes young but unproven NHLers Alexey Marchenko of the Detroit Red Wings, Nikita Zaitsev of the Maple Leafs and Nikita Nesterov of the Lightning who replaced Voynov on the Russian roster.dddddddddddd If this young group can come together quickly and get the puck to the Russian arsenal up front, this team could win it all. If not, well, this could get ugly early.Team SwedenCan they beat the favorites?Outside of Canada, no team boasts as complete a roster as the Swedes. No surprise, given that they were the silver medalists in Sochi, losing to Canada in the gold-medal game. The Swedes are blessed with all kinds of skill, great two-way forwards and superlative goaltending, not to mention leadership in spades with the Sedin twins, Henrik?and Daniel, captain Henrik Zetterberg, Niklas Kronwall and two-time Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson. So, whats to worry about? Like all contenders, they have to get over the mental hurdle of not only playing Canada but beating Canada on its home ice. The Swedes, who play in the deeper of the two preliminary pools, wont play Canada until elimination time either, in a single-game semifinal or in the best-of-three finals. Given how easily Canada handled Sweden in the gold-medal game in Russia, Im not sure thats necessarily a good thing.Team FinlandWhos going to score?The Finns always find a way to be in the mix at these best-on-best shindigs, as witnessed by their bronze-medal performance in Sochi, and this tournament should be no different. Plus, the smaller ice surface in North America should play to the Finns strengths as a hard-nosed and tough-checking unit. Opponents will be hard-pressed to score, with the Nashville Predators Pekka Rinne expected to shoulder the load in goal, but can the Finns generate enough offense to keep pace? Only one player on the roster, Aleksander Barkov, scored more than 20 goals last season (he had 28). And no player on the roster had more than Jussi Jokinens 60 points. Thats going to put a lot of pressure on rookie and No. 2 overall pick Patrik Laine and the rest of the Finnish forwards to produce consistently. Too much pressure, perhaps.Team EuropeCan they bond quickly?Of all eight teams, this might be the most difficult to get your head around. The Euros have terrific talent and experience on the blue line, with Roman Josi, Mark Streit and Zdeno Chara, and lots of skill and grit up front in Anze Kopitar, Mats Zuccarello and Marian Hossa. But can this group of disparate players from disparate nations come together quickly enough to knock off the big boys? Theres lots of pressure on former Swiss national coach Ralph Krueger and his staff, which includes Winnipeg Jets head coach Paul Maurice, to forge an instant identity in the locker room. If the players can find some kind of cohesion through the short training camp and pre-tournament schedule, this collection of international leftovers has a shot at making a dent. But thats a big if.Czech RepublicCan their goalie be the difference?Lets be blunt: The Czechs are the least equal of the eight teams. While theyre solid down the middle, with Tomas Plekanec and David Krejci leading the way, their blue line is Russia-thin. And that brings us to the key question: Which of the Czech goalies has a shot at channeling Dominik Hasek and guiding the Czechs to unexpected success? The safe bet is Petr Mrazek, who recently signed an extension with the Detroit Red Wings, but lets not forget the magic of Michal Neuvirth in the first round of the playoffs, when he helped an undermanned Philadelphia Flyers team push the Presidents Trophy-winning Washington Capitals to six games, stopping an incredible 103 of 105 shots after replacing Steve Mason. Cheap Authentic Jerseys Discount NFL Jerseys Wholesale NFL Camo Jerseys Cheap NFL Autographed Jerseys China Jerseys Wholesale Wholesale Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Store China Jerseys Wholesale Wholesale Throwback Jerseys Cheap Stitched Jerseys China NFL Hoodies Cheap Authentic Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys China Camo China NFL Jerseys Jerseys From China ' ' '