French football legend Michel Platini will run in the election to succeed Sepp Blatter as FIFA president, UEFA said on its website Wednesday, confirming one of football's worst-kept secrets, reports FRANCE 24.
Platini, the current UEFA president and a FIFA vice-president, has written to member federations in Europe saying he will stand and is counting on their support, AP reports.
The FIFA election is on February 26 and would-be candidates must apply by October 26.
Platini has for years been the obvious candidate to succeed Blatter, his mentor in FIFA politics. But a rift between the long-time allies deepened when Blatter broke a promise to leave office in 2015. He urged Blatter not to stand in May and said the series of recent scandals involving FIFA turned his stomach.
Platini chose not to oppose Blatter, who won a fifth presidential term on May 29. Four days later, Blatter announced his resignation plans under pressure from American and Swiss federal investigations of corruption implicating FIFA.
"This was a very personal, carefully considered decision, one in which I weighed up the future of soccer alongside my own future," Platini said in the letter, according to a statement published on the UEFA website.