SINGAPORE - Former Football Association of Singapore president Zainudin Nordin has not proceeded with his bid for a seat on football world governing body Fifa.

In a media release by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on Thursday (Feb 2), eight candidates from Asia have been confirmed to contest for the four Fifa council seats available to the AFC. At least one of the four seats must be filled by a woman.

Having declared his intentions to run for the council last June, Zainudin was not on the list of four male candidates who submitted their names for to contest the election at the AFC Congress in Bahrain on May 7.

The candidates are: Zhang Jian (China), Mong Gyu Chung (South Korea), Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al-Sabah (Kuwait) and Mariano Araneta Jr (Philippines).

Zainudin, who had served as FAS president since 2009, was initially given the green light to run for the Fifa Council by the AFC last June.

However, at an AFC Extraordinary Congress in Goa, India last September, when the elections to the Fifa Council were initially to be held, the AFC member countries voted 42-1 against the agenda, and the congress was called off.

The decision to boycott the congress came after Fifa had barred a Qatari candidate from running for a spot on the council two days before the congress. Singapore was the only member to vote in favour of the agenda.

Following the boycott, the elections were postponed to May.

Zainudin, who stepped down as FAS president in November, was recently appointed the deputy principal of ITE College East.