Zurich: Mohamed Bin Hammam has announced that he'll challenge Sepp Blatter for the FIFA Presidency this year.
The current Asian Football Confederation president will campaign ahead of the elections at the FIFA Congress in Zurich on June 1.
His announcement at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur ends recent speculation sparked largely by suggestions from the Qatari that he would run against Blatter for football's top job.
Over the past few months the 61 year-old has dropped hints but also at times distanced himself from talk of the presidency.
Long seen as the heir to Blatter's throne, Bin Hammam's decision to nominate himself now rather than wait for his opponent's expected retirement in four years is perhaps the biggest decision he has made during his FIFA career.
It was 15 years ago that he became a member of FIFA's 24-man executive committee, a position which he has had to fight for recently within his own confederation.
Elected president of the AFC in 2002, Bin Hammam has reformed football on the continent, elevating standards of professionalism and strengthening the sport financially.
However, he has also divided opinion within his confederation with a perceived authoritarian style and the ruthless and somewhat uncouth manner in which he has run election campaigns in the past.
If he is to end Blatter's reign as president, he will need to win over a majority of FIFA's 208 member national associations who will vote in June.
Bin Hammam's assistance was key in Blatter winning the 1998 FIFA elections but the relationship between the two individuals has grown frosty, with Blatter failing to openly defend the Qatari's place on the executive committee when it was under threat in 2009.
The Swiss national also reportedly reneged on a personal agreement with the Asian chief to retire from his post so that he may be succeeded, instead opting to stay on for another term.
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