Cameroon's Issa Hayatou has put an end to speculation by announcing that he will stand against Sepp Blatter for the Fifa presidency.

With a reputation as a cagey, clever sports politician, the Caf president will have made sure he is in with a real chance of assuming the top job in football before taking such a bold decision.

He has travelled extensively in recent weeks in an attempt to drum up support in the Middle East and Europe.

And the signs are he has succeeded.

He has the backing of both Lennart Johansson, the Uefa president, and Dr Chung Mong-joon, the powerful president of the Korean Football Association.

Should Hayatou succeed in deposing Blatter at the Fifa Congress in Seoul on 28-29 May, he will become Fifa's first African president.

A popular figure in Africa, he was just 41 when he became head of Caf in 1988 following the death of Ethiopian Ydnekatchew Tessema.

Now 55, he has been re-elected three times, losing just three votes out of 51 in the presidential election of January 2000.

Hayatou also serves as a Fifa vice-president and as chairman of the organising committee for the Olympic football tournament.

In December, he was named a member of the International Olympic Committee, having previously served in the structures of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa.

A physical education teacher, Hayatou was born into a regal family in Garoua in the north of Cameroon on 9 August, 1946.

His father was the 'Lamido' or sovereign of the region while his elder brother, Sadou, served as Cameroon's prime minister in the early 1990s.

A former international athlete and basketballer, Hayatou served as an athletics trainer before turning to soccer administration.