KUALA LUMPUR, July 30. /TASS/. Michel Platini, the president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) is the only person who can bring stability to FIFA, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said on Thursday.
"We have of course noted Michel Platini’s decision to stand, and he is certainly a unique candidate who would bring stability and a smooth transition to normality for FIFA in this difficult situation," AFC quoted its President Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa as saying.
Platini officially announced on Wednesday his decision to run for the post of the president of FIFA next February.
"Everybody accepts the need for change in FIFA, and in addition to changing the President much of the rest of FIFA’s organization and the way it functions need to be modernized as well. FIFA also needs someone who can take the best of the past, fuse it with new ideas, and so take the organization into the future," the AFC president said.
Platini, 60, is a former French football player and manager. Considered to be one of the greatest footballers of all time, Platini was elected for the post of UEFA president in January of 2007 and was reelected for the second term in March of 2011 and for another term this year in March.
Current FIFA President Sepp Blatter, 79, was reelected for his fifth consecutive four-year presidential term on May 29, when his only rival Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan pulled out after the first round of vote. However, addressing a news conference in Zurich on June 2, Blatter said he decided to lay down his mandate at FIFA extraordinary elective Congress scheduled for February 26.
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