GENEVA, AP:

Michel Platini will run for FIFA president and plans to announce his intentions this week.

Two officials familiar with Platini's plans have told The Associated Press that the FIFA vice president has made a decision to try to succeed Sepp Blatter.

The officials said that the UEFA president and former France great has been encouraged to run by most leaders of FIFA's continental confederations.

Five of the six continental leaders, including Platini, were in St Petersburg, Russia, last week for FIFA meetings and the 2018 World Cup qualifying draw.

The FIFA election is on February 26 and would-be candidates must apply by October 26.

Serious contender

Platini is set to be the first serious contender to announce he will stand, two months after Blatter was re-elected for a fifth four-year term.

After 17 years as FIFA president, Blatter said on June 2 he was standing down, under pressure from American and Swiss federal investigations of corruption implicating senior FIFA officials.

Platini has not been linked to any wrongdoing, though his vote for Qatar as 2022 World Cup host has proved controversial. He was the first FIFA executive committee member to reveal who he voted for in the December 2010 hosting ballots that also gave the 2018 event to Russia.

Platini is among the great No 10s in history. He won three Ballon d'Or awards as the best player in Europe and lifted two of the three biggest team prizes open to him.

He captained France to win the 1984 European Championship - his nine-goal performance in his home country ranks among the finest individual tournament displays - and scored the winning goal for Juventus in the 1985 European Cup final.

Only FIFA's World Cup eluded him. France lost semi-final matches to West Germany in 1982 and 1986.