David Nakhid, got the full back­ing of T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (TTFA) to be the next FI­FA pres­i­dent.

A unan­i­mous de­ci­sion was tak­en by the TTFA Ex­ec­u­tive Com­mit­tee on Thurs­day evening to sup­port the for­mer Na­tion­al Se­nior Team cap­tain. The for­mer Grasshop­pers FC mid­field­er met with mem­bers of the TTFA for dis­cus­sions on his bid to be the next FI­FA Pres­i­dent which he launched last month.

The TTFA, led by pres­i­dent Ray­mond Tim Kee, re­viewed the man­i­festo for change pro­posed by Nakhid and be­lieves it pro­vides the ba­sis for a fresh start for FI­FA. The lo­cal gov­ern­ing body be­lieves that it is the right time for new blood to be brought in and that Nakhid is ca­pa­ble of lead­ing the world gov­ern­ing body.

"At a meet­ing of the Ex­ec­u­tive Com­mit­tee on Thurs­day, there was a unan­i­mous de­ci­sion tak­en to back Mr Nakhid in the next FI­FA Pres­i­den­tial elec­tion. We are one for im­proved gov­er­nance and trans­paren­cy at FI­FA and it is our be­lief that Mr Nakhid has the right in­ten­tions and qual­i­ties for the po­si­tion," Tim Kee said.

"The fo­cus now has to be on the best in­ter­est of the re­gion and the world. The ex­ec­u­tive com­mit­tee was im­pressed by Mr Nakhid's vi­sion for the de­vel­op­ment of Caribbean foot­ball and he dis­played the best un­der­stand­ing of the unique needs and great po­ten­tial of the re­gion."

Nakhid, who is based in Lebanon where he runs the David Nakhid In­ter­na­tion­al Foot­ball School, needs the back­ing of five na­tion­al as­so­ci­a­tions in or­der to be a can­di­date. The TTFA is now among those as­so­ci­a­tions that will be back­ing the 51-year-old Amer­i­can Uni­ver­si­ty grad­u­ate.

Nakhid al­so met with mem­bers of the Caribbean Foot­ball Union last month to gath­er sup­port.

With just six months to go be­fore FI­FA elects a new pres­i­dent, the pool of can­di­dates has grown to sev­en. The oth­er men in the race are France's Michel Pla­ti­ni, Jor­dan's Prince Ali Bin Al Hus­sein, for­mer Niger­ian play­er Se­gun Odeg­ba­mi, Chung Mong-Joon of South Ko­rea, for­mer Brazil­ian play­er Zi­co and Musa Bil­i­ty of Liberia.

The elec­tion to find a suc­ces­sor to Sepp Blat­ter will be held in Zurich on Feb­ru­ary 26.