FIFA presidential candidate Jerome Champagne is out of the race after failing to win sufficient backing for his candidacy, saying that national associations feared "reprisals" if they supported him.

"I regret to have to announce that I have not presented the five sponsorship letters needed to be registered as a candidate in the election of May 29," the Frenchman said in a statement on Monday.

Champagne, who held various executive positions with FIFA from 1999 to 2010, said he only secured the backing of three member associations of the football world governing body.

"The institutions have mobilized to eliminate the only independent candidate," Champagne said, adding that some of the national federations "feared reprisals from their confederations having issued "recommendations."

With fellow Frenchman David Ginola out of the race, also for not gathering enough support, Dutch football association president Michael van Praag, former World Player of Year Luis Figo of Portugal, and Jordan's Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein are now the three remaining candidates aiming to challenge 78-year-old Joseph "Sepp" Blatter. FIFA confirmed Monday that all candidature dossiers would next go before the investigatory chamber of an independent Ethics Committee to carry out integrity checks on the four men within ten days.

"Upon receipt of the results of the integrity checks, the (FIFA) Ad-hoc Electoral Committee will reconvene in order to review all of the submissions and validate their compliance with the applicable FIFA regulatory provisions," a FIFA statement said.

Blatter tipped to win it

In the May election, Blatter is widely expected to beat his rivals, as he has the support of federations in Asia, Oceania, Africa, South and Central America and the Caribbean. The Swiss football functionary has held the post as FIFA president since 1998 and is seeking a fifth term.

Europe's governing body, UEFA, is the only one of FIFA's six continental soccer bodies actively campaigning against Blatter. UEFA's president Michel Platini has been quoted as saying that Blatter should "make room for someone else," in order to improve FIFA's image.

But, on Blatter's watch, the World Cup has become a huge commercial success in recent times. FIFA has built a $1.5-billion (1.33 billion euros) cash reserve and distributed around $200 million from the 2014 World Cup profits in bonus payments to federations and continental confederations.

ng/al (Reuters, dpa, AP, SID)