Champagne aims to upset Blatter’s party

Former FIFA official to run for presidential election next year

PARIS: Long-time Fifa incumbent Sepp Blatter will have at least one rival for next year's presidential election as former senior Fifa executive Jerome Champagne confirmed late Monday that he would contest it.

The 56-year-old Frenchman, who worked closely with Blatter between 2002 and 2005 when he was deputy secretary-general, said on Twitter he had sent a letter to Fifa headquarters in Switzerland that he would be a candidate, confirming his initial declaration in London back in January.

"I have the honor of informing you that I have just written to the Fifa Ad-hoc Electoral Committee and its president, Mr Domenico Scala, to confirm my intention to run for Fifa president," said Champagne in a letter to football federations posted on his website.

Champagne, who is funding his own campaign, helped to organise Blatter's victorious election campaign in 2002 and later worked as Fifa's director of international relations before leaving the organisation in 2010.

He has since worked as an independent football consultant, helping Kosovo to gain recognition from Fifa and working on a potential rapprochement between Israel and Palestine.

The election itself takes place next May at the Fifa Congress.