South African businessman Tokyo Sexwale says he will run for FIFA president

Tokyo Sexwale, a South African businessman and former inmate with Nelson Mandela on Robben Island, has announced that he will run for president of FIFA.

Sexwale has until the Monday deadline to officially file his paperwork and confirm his candidature.

Four others have submitted their names: suspended UEFA president Michel Platini, who may not clear the necessary integrity checks because of his involvement in an ongoing investigation; Jordanian Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, who ran and lost against Sepp Blatter in May; Jerome Champagne, a former advisor to Blatter; and former Trinidad and Tobago national team captain David Nakhid.

Sexwale, 62, a former anti-apartheid activist who met Mandela in prison, has already secured the backing of Franz Beckenbauer and the German Football Federation (DFB).

"At some point there will be the oportunity to appoint a president from an external source - someone from economics, someone from politics," said Beckenbauer, who is fighting allegations over the awarding of the 2006 World Cup.

"That is why I refer to Tokyo because he is someone different, who has a political past, but he also knows his way around sport."

Sexwale is highly regarded in FIFA circles, known as something of a "clean skin" who is not directly involved in an organisation racked with charges of corruption.