I'm withdrawing from FIFA presidency race... the timing is not good for me, says banned Platini

The Frenchman says he wants to get his eight-year ban from football overturned but admitted that because of the upcoming deadline for the February 26 contest, he would not be able to stand as a candidate.

Platini, the head of European soccer body UEFA, was handed his ban along with outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter by the federation's independent Ethics Committee on December 21. Both have been engulfed by the worst corruption scandal in FIFA's history as the sport faces criminal investigations in Switzerland and the United States, where 41 soccer officials and sports entities have been indicted on corruption-related charges.

Both men deny any wrongdoing and plan to take their cases to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

"I'm withdrawing from the race for the FIFA presidency," Platini told the Associated Press. "The timing is not good for me. I don't have the means to fight on equal terms with the other candidates.

"I have not been given the chance to play the game. Bye bye Fifa, bye bye Fifa presidency."

The 60-year-old added: “I'm taking this philosophically, let's wait and see what happens. But injustice is revolting me and I'm trying to fight it.

“I can't have any regret in that story because things fell upon my head while I haven't done anything wrong. I'm struggling to understand what happened, unless there was a will somewhere to prevent me from bidding.

“Many national federations wanted me as President. I had 150 associations thinking that I'm the right person to solve FIFA's problems.

“It won't happen. But there is no age limitation, so maybe I'll come back in 20 years. Who knows?”

Five candidates, none of them clear favourites, will take part in the election and a chance for the job of rebuilding the sport's beleaguered governing body.

They are Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan, Asian Football Confederation President Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa of Bahrain, former FIFA official Jerome Champagne of France, UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino of Switzerland and South Africa businessman Tokyo Sexwale.

Infantino has been Platini's right-hand man at UEFA and announced his candidacy after the Frenchman had been initially suspended in October.

Champagne, although a compatriot of Platini, is known to be a critic, has no connections with UEFA and says that FIFA's priority must be to spread the game's riches more evenly around the world.