DESPITE EVER INCREASING opposition to his tenure, FIFA president Sepp Blatter today announced he will be a candidate for a fifth term in charge of world football’s governing body when elections come around 2015.
Blatter, who first became president in 1998, has faced criticism from some national bodies – particularly in Europe – in recent months but has decided to seek re-election anyway.
“Yes I will be ready. I will be a candidate,” Blatter said in a video speech to a football conference in Manchester.
“You see a mission is never finished. And my mission is not finished.
“I got through the last Congress in Sao Paulo not only the impression but the support of the majority, a huge majority of national associations asking ‘please go on, be our president also in future’.”
Not everyone is happy with the news, as you can imagine:
The election will be held at the next FIFA congress in Zurich in May, 2015. So far the only other candidate is Jerome Champagne a former FIFA deputy secretary general from France.
Champagne has said FIFA needs reform after widespread accusations of corruption, but has acknowledged he has little chance of beating Blatter.
Additional reporting from AFP.
