PARIS, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Formula One's governing body can return sole candidate Mohammed Ben Sulayem as president next week but faces a legal challenge in February, a lawyer for would-be opponent Laura Villars said on Wednesday.

Swiss-French racer Villars, 28, had sought an emergency judgment from the Judicial Court of Paris seeking to suspend the election after FIA statutes prevented her and fellow-candidate Tim Mayer, an American, from standing.