FIFA official Jacques Anouma hit out at a ''scandalous'' decision by the Confederation of African Football to block his bid to be a presidential candidate.
The African football body has decided that Issa Hayatou, a FIFA vice president from Cameroon who has led CAF since 1987, is the only official candidate for its election in March, after he engineered a change in election rules in September.
The Ivory Coast Football Federation nominated Anouma, who also sits on FIFA's executive committee, despite him being barred by a rule which allows only voting members of the CAF board to stand.
Anouma criticized Hayatou's tactics as ''all kinds of maneuvers which belong to a past era.''
In a statement on his website on Tuesday, Anouma pledged to challenge the election rules.
''We note this scandalous decision which doesn't honor African football, nor the confederation responsible for governing it,'' said Anouma, who got non-voting status on CAF's board when African nations elected him to FIFA in 2007.
''We will continue to work with more determination to one day give our continent a football confederation that is truly democratic, transparent and looking toward the real challenges of the future,'' he said.
Anouma will likely find support from the Liberian federation which has already challenged Hayatou's rules at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The court told Liberian officials they must first exhaust CAF's internal appeals process.
The CAF election congress is scheduled for March 10 in Marrakech, Morocco.
The Cairo-based governing body published a brief statement on Monday that ''in conformity with the statutory provisions of CAF, the following candidacies were retained.''
In other election contests, Egyptian official Hani Abou Rida is unopposed to get a second four-year mandate on the FIFA executive committee.
Danny Jordaan of South Africa, who led the 2010 World Cup organizing committee, is among six candidates for two seats on the CAF ruling committee to represent southern nations.
Jordaan also has supporters who want him to end Hayatou's reign, but is barred by the election entry rule.
Candidates for other regional seats include Amadou Diakite of Mali, who recently completed a two-year ban imposed by FIFA for corruption. Diakite advised British undercover reporters how to bribe FIFA executive members who were due to vote for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts.
Liberian football president Hassan Bility is one of three challengers against Diakite.
Benin football president Moucharafou Anjorin is among three candidates to replace disgraced Nigerian official Amos Adamu on the African board. Adamu was barred from the World Cup vote and lost his FIFA seat for seeking bribes from the undercover reporters.
Anjorin spent several months in prison last year while under suspicion for embezzling $650,000 of sponsorship income.
