CAIRO, March 16: Issa Hayatou of Cameroon ended weeks of speculation Saturday when he announced he was standing as a candidate for the presidency of FIFA, world soccer’s governing body.

Hayatou, 55, the president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and one of seven FIFA vice-presidents, declared his candidature against incumbent president Sepp Blatter following a meeting of CAF’s executive committee meeting here.

He said his immediate aim as president would be to restore some peace to FIFA after years of political in-fighting.

“If I am elected president, I will do everything I can to finally bring friendship back to FIFA so we become one family again, with full transparency,” he said.

Five other members of FIFA’s executive committee were on the podium as Hayatou announced his candidature: Ismail Bhamjee (Botswana), Slim Aloulou (Tunisia), Antonio Matarrese (Italy), Amadou Diakite (Mali) and UEFA president Lennart Johansson.

In Seoul, in a well-orchestrated piece of timing, FIFA vice-president and executive committee member Chung Mong-joon, the president of the Korean FA and co-chairman of South Korea’s World Cup organising committee, also announced his support for Hayatou.

The vote against Blatter, the only other candidate for the top job in world soccer, will take place at the FIFA Congress in Seoul on May 29, two days before the start of the World Cup finals. In all, 204 FIFA members have the right to elect their new president.

The public show of support for the tall, charismatic Hayatou openly shows that the leadership of FIFA is split between members who support Blatter and those opposed to him.

The situation has deteriorated rapidly in the last year, since the collapse of FIFA’s long-term marketing agent ISL-ISM with reported losses of around $1.2 billion which has put incredible pressure on FIFA’s finances..—Reuters