Michael van Praag has confirmed he has withdrawn from the race for the FIFA presidency and is now backing Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein's candidacy for the election on May 29.
Dutch FA (KNVB) president Van Praag had announced he would challenge current FIFA president Sepp Blatter at this month's elections.
However, reports emerged on Wednesday that Van Praag and Luis Figo would be withdrawing from the race and a statement released on behalf of the Dutchman on Thursday confirmed that he would not be standing.
The statement read: "After thorough deliberation and reflection with different involved parties and stakeholders, Michael van Praag decided to withdraw his candidacy to become the next FIFA president and to join forces with presidential candidate Prince Ali Al Hussein.
"An explanation for this decision will be given at a joint (international) press meeting, scheduled to take place tonight in Amsterdam."
A spokesman for Figo had refused to confirm or deny that the former Portugal star had withdrawn his candidacy when asked about the reports by Reuters on Wednesday.
FIFA vice-president Prince Ali decided to challenge Blatter in January 2015 and gathered more support from the 209 FIFA countries than either Van Praag or Figo.
However, Blatter, who is looking to secure his fifth term, is still favourite to win the vote, with the Confederation of African Football (CAF)'s president, Issa Hayatou, having declared that its 54 members would vote for the 79-year-old Swiss.
Figo said last month, though, that he did not believe all African nations would vote as announced.
In total, 105 votes are needed to secure a win, with the decision set to be announced in Zurich next week.