Soccer:Asian football chief Mohamed Bin Hammam has today confirmed he will challenge Sepp Blatter for the Fifa presidency. The 61-year-old has spent the past two months weighing up possible support among the 208 national associations who make up Fifa.

The Qatari ended weeks of speculation with confirmation of his move at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today.

"After careful consideration I have decided to contest in the Fifa presidential elections on June 1st,” Bin Hammam announced. "My chances, I would say, are 50-50. Sepp Blatter is a very experienced person and has made a significant contribution to the development of the game. The world knows him very well."

Blatter, 75, who is seeking a fourth term as head of Fifa, and Bin Hammam will stand in an election at the two-day Fifa Congress in Zurich starting on May 31st.

Bin Hammam, who was sworn in unopposed for a third and final four-year term as AFC head in January, is hoping to become the ninth president of Fifa and the first from Asia.

Dressed in a sharp suit he spoke with poise as he delivered a manifesto which centered on distributing power more evenly across Fifa's 208 members and said he would ask bigger nations to offer more help to the less privileged.

"I will always put into consideration the need and the requirement of every member association to have more technical and financial support to enable them to close the gap between their nations and those of the advanced football nations."

He promised to double donations to member associations and to increase the size of, and rebrand, the executive committee to ensure more votes for all confederations after criticising much of Fifa's administration.

Bin Hammam also made it clear he would support the introduction of goal line technology, something Fifa has so far dragged its feet on, if his bid for the top job was successful and said he would be in favour of introducing two more officials behind the goals.