Brazil legend Zico confirms his plans to stand in the FIFA presidency election

Zico has announced his future plans to run for the FIFA presidency
Sepp Blatter confirmed he will step down after all the corruption allegations
Zico, however, admitted it may be tough for him to find enough support

Published:
21:03 GMT, 10 June 2015

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Updated:
22:09 GMT, 10 June 2015

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Former Brazil star Zico on Wednesday confirmed he will stand in the election to succeed Sepp Blatter as president of FIFA, although he admitted he may struggle to find enough support.

‘I would like to confirm the decision to be a candidate,’ the 62-year-old told a news conference.

‘I feel I am capable. For sure, certain rules need to change.’

Zico confirmed to the press that he plans to run for FIFA presidency despite his lack of experience

Blatter has already announced he will stand down from the job after the organisation he has headed since 1998 was engulfed in a series of corruption allegations.

Zico, who has experience of the game at managerial level having notably coached Japan, said he believed the game had to undergo wide-ranging reforms.

But he added he believed it was right that Blatter be allowed to stay in place prior to a vote on a successor due by year’s end.

‘This will allow him to make an orderly handover,’ Zico told reporters in Rio.

Zico, nicknamed the ‘white Pele’ during a playing career which never yielded a World Cup triumph, joked that controversial Argentine legend Diego Maradona could serve as vice-president.

The Brazilian legend has admitted he might struggle to earn support but feels he’s more than capable

Zico jumps for joy after scoring the first in the 4-1 victory against Scotland in the 1982 World Cup

Maradona, a World Cup winner in 1986, was banned for doping eight years later and a previous drugs ban while playing in Italy would suggest he has little chance of joining the game’s establishment.

But he is a football name – and he has every right therefore to ‘put his name forward’ if he wished to do so, Zico said.

While underlining his interest in standing for a revamped FIFA, Zico said he would first insist on a simplified voting system which is less open to ‘horsetrading.’

Sepp Blatter stepped down as president after the recent FIFA revelations regarding bribery

And he added he would also call for a system of ‘one re-election at most,’ noting that Blatter and predecessor, Brazilian Joao Havelange, had held the post between them for the past four decades – his own entire career as player and coach.

Zico added that the Brazilian Football Confederation also needed a total overhaul with former president Jose Maria Marin one of seven top FIFA officials arrested in Zurich late last month as part of an FBI probe into corruption in the sport.

‘But that is even more difficult’ than reforming FIFA, Zico suggested, in wearily acknowledging that Brazilian football politics has long been a murky business.

In order to have his putative FIFA candidature accepted the former Flamengo star requires the support of five international federations.