| 1 | GENEVA (AP) -- Michel Platini will run for FIFA president and plans to announce his intentions this week. |
| 2 | 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. |
| 3 | The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Platini has not announced his candidacy. |
| 4 | The officials said that the UEFA president and former France great has been encouraged to run by most leaders of FIFA's continental confederations. |
| 5 | 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. |
| 6 | Platini declined to discuss his ambitions when asked by the AP in St. Petersburg. |
| 7 | The FIFA election is on Feb. 26 and would-be candidates must apply by Oct. 26. |
| 8 | 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. |
| 9 | Two former FIFA vice presidents from Asia are also possible contenders. |
| 10 | Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, who lost a 133-73 vote to Blatter on May 29 with Platini's public support, and South Korean politician Chung Mong-joon have made public statements about the election in recent days. |
| 11 | Blatter was Platini's long-time mentor in FIFA politics until a rift developed as the 79-year-old Swiss hung on to office in recent years. |
| 12 | 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. |
| 13 | Platini has not been linked to any wrongdoing, though his vote for Qatar as 2022 World Cup host has proved controversial. |
| 14 | 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. |
| 15 | Platini, who turned 60 last month, chose last year not to oppose Blatter in the recent election. |
| 16 | ''Now is not my time, not yet,'' Platini said last August in Monaco when announcing he would focus on getting a third term at UEFA, which he won in March unopposed for a second straight time. |
| 17 | His rise to the top job in European football in 2007 owed a little to Blatter's help and showed how much recent history they share in the game of soccer politics. |
| 18 | Platini ousted veteran UEFA leader Lennart Johansson of Sweden in a 27-23 vote which perhaps swung on his promise to add eight teams to the European Championship. |
| 19 | The larger 24-team event will debut in Platini's home country of France in June. |
| 20 | Blatter also beat Johansson to get his FIFA job, in a 1998 election in Paris dogged by allegations of late vote-buying by supporters of Blatter. |
| 21 | Then, Platini was doing double duty as head of the 1998 World Cup organizing committee and as a campaign manager for Blatter. |
| 22 | There is no suggestion Platini was involved in election wrongdoing. |
| 23 | Platini joined Blatter in Zurich after a successful World Cup, won by France, as a presidential adviser for four years before winning a FIFA executive committee seat representing UEFA. |
| 24 | In eight years leading European soccer, Platini has tried to please less powerful voting federations by giving their national and club teams better chances to advance in UEFA competitions. |
| 25 | Second-tier matches such as the Europa League final and Super Cup have been sent to Romania, Switzerland, Wales and Georgia. |
| 26 | Platini's Euro 2020 project will see 13 countries host the continent-wide tournament, including Azerbaijan and Hungary. |
| 27 | However, Platini's reign has seen the Champions League dominated by an elite group of wealthy clubs from the richest soccer nations. |
| 28 | His signature ''Financial Fair Play'' policy designed to curb clubs overspending has seemed only to cement the elite in place. |
| 29 | If elected FIFA's ninth president in 112 years, and third Frenchman, Platini will be the best player to occupy the office. |
| 30 | Platini is among the great No. |
| 31 | 10s in history. |
| 32 | 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. |
| 33 | 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. |
| 34 | Only FIFA's World Cup eluded him. |
| 35 | France lost semifinal matches to West Germany in 1982 and 1986. |
| 36 | Platini's achievements would be neatly completed by becoming FIFA president. |