Fifa president Sepp Blatter has confirmed he will stand for a fifth term next year.
The 78-year-old succeeded Joao Havelange in 1998 as the eighth president of world football’s governing body and was re-elected in 2002, 2007 and unopposed in 2011- at which time he had claimed would be his last.
The Swiss has made no secret over the past months of his intention to stand again and says he would officially inform the Fifa executive committee of his plans at the next meeting on 25 and 26 September.
“I will inform the executive committee. It’s a question of respect also to say then to the football family, ‘Yes I will be ready. I will be a candidate,” Blatter said in a video interview played at the Soccerex conference in Manchester.
President of the European football association, Uefa, has, last month, announced he would not contest for the Fifa post.
Meanwhile, delegates of the Uefa football confederation urged Blatter to stand down in next year’s election- amid corruption allegations- at the Fifa Congress in Sao Paulo two days before the start of the 2014 World Cup.
But the Fifa chief said the backing of the majority of the national associations at the aforementioned congress had convinced him to continue into the future.
Blatter said: “You see a mission is never finished. And my mission is not finished.
“Then 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.”
The next election comes up at the Fifa Congress in June, on expiration of his current mandate. The deadline to register as a candidate is in January.
