African soccer chief Issa Hayatou is set to announce tomorrow that he will run against Sepp Blatter for the presidency of FIFA. Lennart Johansson, president of European soccer's ruling body, and UEFA's chief executive Gerhard Aigner are expected to fly from Geneva to Cairo later today to endorse Hayatou with Dr Chung Mong-joon, the powerful president of the Korean Football Association, also backing the campaign.
Blatter, president since 1998, has been accused of downplaying the losses suffered by FIFA, and his opponents won a significant victory in Zurich last week when a six-strong group was appointed to investigate the effects of the ISL debacle. ISL, FIFA’s former marketing partner, went bust to the tune of £278million.
Blatter has also had to contend with allegations that votes were bought by supporters of his successful bid for the FIFA presidency in Paris four years ago.
Filed by Johnny Proby
