Brazil Legend Zico to Stand for FIFA Presidency

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. (FIFA Needs Painful Reforms: Bach)

"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."

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. (Sepp Blatter Successor Likely to be Elected in December)

"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.

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. ('Blatter's Departure Will Not Change FIFA')

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."

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. (Jack Warner Says US Would Not Guarantee Fair Trial)

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. (No Reason to Probe Brazil in FIFA Scandal, Says President Dilma Rousseff)