THE Sepp Blatter era at FIFA is set to finally end Friday when soccer’s scandal-scarred world body picks a new president after nine months of crisis.

    An election meeting designed to give FIFA a fresh start with a new leader could yet be overshadowed by its criminally corrupt past.

    Voters return to Zurich this week unsure who is the next target of federal law enforcement agencies in the United States and Switzerland, who have sent FIFA into meltdown with waves of arrests, extraditions and guilty pleas.

    Leaders of FIFA’s 209 member federations will elect a successor for the now-banned 79-year-old who has been president since 1998. The winner will be the fourth elected FIFA chief.

    Two front-runners have emerged in a five-candidate contest: Asia’s soccer leader, Sheikh Salman of Bahrain, and Gianni Infantino, the Swiss general secretary of European governing body UEFA.

    The other candidates are: Former FIFA vice president Prince Ali of Jordan; former FIFA official Jerome Champagne of France; and South African businessman Tokyo Sexwale, once an inmate of Robben Island prison with Nelson Mandela.

    (SD-Agencies)