Platini welcomes taskforce but stays silent on election bid

UEFA president Michel Platini has kept tight-lipped on his potential bid for FIFA presidency, while hailing the creation of a taskforce to handle reform at world football's governing body.

FIFA announced on Monday that its presidential election will take place on February 26 following Sepp Blatter's decision to stand down on June 2, following the arrest of nine FIFA officials in a corruption probe six days earlier.

The governing body held an Extraordinary General Meeting in Zurich on Monday and also confirmed that an 11-man taskforce would be set up to propose reforms.

Reacting to that news, Platini said in a statement: "Along with the rest of FIFA's Executive Committee, I feel that the creation of a task force with internal and external members to deal specifically with reforms is an important step towards improving overall processes and transparency within the organisation.

"We must now make sure that the reforms outlined today will be undertaken in a swift and effective manner. As I have said various times in the recent past, we need to reform FIFA and we need to do it now. "

Platini's potential bid for the presidency is said to have the support of Europe, Asia, South America and the CONCACAF confederation.

And he added: "Regarding the election, we now have a concrete date which means we can look forward to new leadership which will surely bring with it new ideas and new solutions.