Reports: Diego Maradona to stand for FIFA presidency

A Uruguayan journalist Victor Hugo Morales has claimed that football legend Diego Maradona will compete in the FIFA presidential elections to replace Sepp Blatter as the head of the organisation. The journalist reportedly learned of this development when he called the Argentine to check on the health of his sick father.

Morales posted this on Twitter in Spanish, the tweet read: “He told me he was going to run for president of Fifa and authorised me to inform.”

He added to the earlier claim in another tweet that read: “‘I am a candidate’ were the two words Diego Maradona used to answer me when I consulted him about the nomination for the presidency of Fifa.”

Llamé a Diego Maradona para ver cómo estaba su papá. Me contó que iba a ser candidato a presidente de la FIFA y me autorizó a comunicarlo.

— Víctor Hugo Morales (@vh590) June 22, 2015

Morales has become popular in the past for being quite close to Maradona, however, there has been no official confirmation of Maradona’s intentions so far.

Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro earlier suggested that Maradona take up the mantle of being the next FIFA president. With the Brazilian Zico also possibly in the running, he would have a tough fight ahead of him.

The Argentine has been a vocal critic of the Blatter ruled FIFA organisation. However, for this to be plausible, Maradona and Zico will have to gain the support of federations from 5 countries according to FIFA rules.