Maradona set to run for FIFA presidency.

Diego Maradona has decided to stand as a candidate for the FIFA presidency to replace Sepp Blatter, the Uruguayan journalist and author Victor Hugo Morales has said.

According to The Guardian, Morales said that Maradona had told him of his intention when he called the former coach of the Argentina team to check on the condition of his sick father on Sunday.

“He told me he was going to run for president of FIFA and authorised me to inform,” Morales posted in Spanish on his Twitter feed.

“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,” he added in another tweet.

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro suggested this month that Maradona should become the next FIFA President. The former Argentina captain, 54, has long been a trenchant critic of Blatter and last month said he was “enjoying” the corruption scandal that led the Swiss to announce he would stand down.

-punch