'My mission is not finished' - FIFA president Sepp Blatter confirms he will stand for fifth term

 
Staying power: Blatter will run for fifth term as FIFA president
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Giuseppe Muro8 September 2014

Sepp Blatter will stand for re-election as FIFA president next year.

The 78-year-old today confirmed his intention to go for a fifth term in charge of world football’s governing body.

Blatter’s decision follows UEFA president Michel Platini’s announcement last month that he would not be running as a candidate in next year’s election. Blatter will make an official announcement of his plans to stand for re-election when FIFA’s executive committee meet on September 25-26.

“You see a mission is never finished. And my mission is not finished,” said Blatter today in an interview played at the Soccerex conference in Manchester: “I will inform the executive committee. It is a question of respect also to say then to the football family, ‘Yes I will be ready. I will be a candidate’.”

It is highly unlikely that Blatter will not be re-elected when voting takes place at the FIFA congress in Zurich in May and June next year.

Blatter, who was first elected in 1998, has the backing of the majority of the national associations and that has convinced him to keep going.

Blatter said: “I got [from] 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’.”

Platini has said he would not be supporting Blatter, but the UEFA president will not oppose him.

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