Jerome Champagne confirms to stand for FIFA presidency

London: Former French diplomat Jerome Champagne has announced that he will be running to replace under-fire Sepp Blatter as a new FIFA president.

His decision came before the deadline to run for the February elections.

Following his announcement, Champagne said there is an immediate need to save the world's football governing body and its role of governance and redistribution, the Guardian reported.

He further said that there is also a need to restore FIFA's lost credibility and prepare it for the upcoming challenges.

Besides Champagne, under-fire UEFA president Michel Platini, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, the former Trinidad player David Nakhid and the Asian Football Confederation president, Sheikh Salman al-Khalifa would also run for the presidency post.

Earlier, FIFA plunged into an unprecedented crisis when Swiss prosecutors opened criminal proceedings against embattled Blatter last month over allegations that he sold World Cup TV rights to disgraced former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner for 20 times below their true value.

In addition, Platini was also questioned over the claims that he had received a 'disloyal payment' of two million Swiss francs from the FIFA's embattled president in 2011.

Subsequently, Blatter and Platini were handed a 90-day suspension for criminal proceedings against them.