Portuguese legend Luis Figo revealed today his intention to become FIFA's President. The former Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Barcelona player stated that the mystery over Michael Garcia's report regarding the World Cup bids of Russia and Qatar helped him decide about a possible candidacy.
"After that report was not published I think that was the moment of change and the moment I thought that something had to be done. If you are transparent and if you ask for an investigation, a report, which you have nothing to hide, why don't you make public that report? If you have nothing to hide about that, you have to do it," Figo said.
During the interview with CNN, Figo stated he only wants to restore credibility upon football, since he noticed that FIFA's image has been deteriorated over the past couple of years.
"If you search FIFA on the internet you see the first word that comes out: scandal -- not positive words. It's that we have to change first and try to improve the image of FIFA. Football deserves much better than this," the former wingman added.
The Portuguese candidate knows it will be a hard task to remove Joseph Blatter from FIFA's top seat, but he takes on the challenge as he used to do it on the pitch.
"I think no one is untouchable in this life. If you think like that you are wrong. Of course Blatter is a person that is running the organization for so long, but I can say for me it is a fantastic challenge to try and convince the people to follow me and support me," Figo said. "I have so many examples in football; you can play against the strongest team or you can play against the weakest team and you never know who will win," he added.
Besides Blatter, Figo will contend with former PSG midfielder David Ginola, independent candidate Jerome Champagne, Prince Ali Ben Al-Hussein from Jordan and the head of Dutch football, Michael Van Praag.
Watch Figo's complete interview regarding his candidacy.
