GENEVA - Luis Figo wants to be FIFA president and claims he has the nominations needed for official challenge against Sepp Blatt

GENEVA - Luis Figo wants to be FIFA president and claims he has the nominations needed for official challenge against Sepp Blatter. James Johnson Heat Jersey .The former Portugal, Barcelona and Real Madrid playmaker announced his campaign in a statement on Wednesday timed for release with an interview with CNN.I look at the reputation of FIFA right now and I dont like it. Football deserves better, the 42-year-old Figo said in the statement. Football has given me so much during my life, and I want to give something back to the game.FIFA president Blatter is the strong favourite to get a fifth presidential term in the May 29 ballot despite bribery and financial scandals which have implicated several of his executive committee colleagues.The deadline for would-be candidates to file nominations from five of FIFAs 209 member federations is 2300 GMT Thursday.I have seen the image of FIFA deteriorate, and as I speak to many people in football — to players, managers and association presidents — so many of those people have told me that something has to be done, Figo said.Figo, the 2001 world player of the year, launched his campaign one hour before Netherlands federation president Michael van Praag held a news conference in Amsterdam to explain his bid.Van Praag also says he has five nominees but, like Figo, has not identified them.Their rival campaigns suggest splits within UEFA, which is the only one of the six FIFA confederations officially opposing Blatter.Figo was UEFAs ambassador for the Champions League final in Lisbon last year, and Van Praag is an elected member of UEFAs ruling board which met on Monday.Van Praag, an outspoken critic of Blatter last year, said late Monday he was running because no other credible challenger had emerged.UEFA president Michel Platini opted last August not to stand against Blatter, though said he encouraged rivals for his 78-year-old former mentor.On Wednesday, Platinis spokesman, Pedro Pinto, welcomed Figos entry.Credible candidates with new ideas will hopefully add to an open debate in the campaign, Pinto said in a statement. It is good for FIFA, and it is good for football to have valid candidates with extensive experience in the sport, and from different parts of the world.Platini has also supported the candidacy of his fellow FIFA vice-president, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan.Other potential contenders seeking nominations include former FIFA official Jerome Champagne — a longtime Blatter ally and the only contender to publish a detailed manifesto — and former France player David Ginola, who is being paid by a betting operator to run.Figo is also paid to do promotional work for a betting firm, Asian operator Dafabet, and was an ambassador for its 2014 World Cup promotions.It is unclear if Figo and Ginola will pass mandatory integrity checks on potential candidates by FIFAs ethics committee.The FIFA code of ethics covers officials who are forbidden from taking part in, either directly or indirectly, or otherwise being associated with, betting, gambling, lotteries and similar events or transactions connected with football matches.FIFA has set up an election oversight panel, chaired by its audit and compliance panel chairman Domenico Scala, to assess the integrity checks and nomination papers before declaring which are the official candidates.Scala is expected to publish the candidate list before mid-February.Blatter has led FIFA since 1998, and has worked for footballs governing body for 40 years.Beside the scandals during his leadership, the Swiss official has overseen FIFA use spectacular commercial success from the World Cup to build cash reserves of $1.5 billion and distribute increasing bonuses to its national members who have shown little desire for change.Blatter needs two-thirds of the votes for victory in a first round of secret balloting of the 209 members in Zurich, or a simple majority in subsequent rounds. Alonzo Mourning Jersey . The two teams will play through the completion of the game starting at 5pm ct on Wednesday. The regularly scheduled Wednesday night matchup will follow that and will now be seven innings. Shaquille ONeal Heat Jersey . -- The Los Angeles Clippers chose not to speak publicly about owner Donald Sterling before they faced the Golden State Warriors for Game 4 of their first-round series Sunday. http://www.authenticbasketballshopheat.info/shaquille-o-neal-heat-jersey/ . The third-ranked Buckeyes were down eight points to Notre Dame with less than 2 minutes to play and their offence was nowhere to be found.MIAMI - The last time Dwyane Wade played in an NBA Finals game, he needed fluid drained from his left knee and eight hours of intense game-day therapy just to get into uniform. The Miami Heat guard later described it in a single word. "Hell," Wade said. It was also worth it, after he scored 23 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and hoisted his third Larry OBrien Trophy. Now, unlike last year, Wade is not dealing with any injuries heading into the Miamis finals rematch against the San Antonio Spurs. At 32 years old and with 866 NBA games already on his playing odometer, Wade still deals with plenty of aches and pains, good days and bad days, and basically has a standing appointment in the Heat training room. But compared to last seasons NBA Finals, his knees are good as new. "Hes a big-time, huge piece to our puzzle," four-time NBA MVP and Heat star LeBron James said. "To have him out there in the groove that hes in right now, its going to help us." The Heat are looking to win their third straight title and Wade is on the cusp of joining a list of all-time NBA greats. There are just seven players with four championships and at least one NBA Finals MVP award on their resumes: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, John Havlicek, Magic Johnson, Shaquille ONeal, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and the Spurs Tim Duncan. Wade could be the eighth person in that club. "We just want to continue to add to what were accomplishing," Wade said. Almost forgotten amid all the memories of Wade limping about during last years playoffs — he whacked what was his "good" knee at this time last year, the surgically repaired left one, in a collision with the Spurs Manu Ginobili during Game 6 of the finals — is he had big games when Miami needed him. Through his first 14 games of the 2013 playoffs, Wade was averaging 13.6 points. In the final eight games of that post-season run, starting with Game 7 against Indiana, he averaged 19.8 points. And in the last four games of the finals, he averaged 23.5 points against the Spurs to close the series. As his knees got worse, Wade seemed to gget better. Glen Rice Jersey. "He still found a way last year," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "He really did. He had some of his biggest games not only in the finals, but Game 7, we didnt think necessarily he was going to even play that game in the Eastern Conference finals." This year, the Heat tried to leave nothing to chance with Wades health. The so-called maintenance plan for Wade — limiting his minutes to save his knees — kicked in on the second night of the regular season. He wound up missing 28 games in all, mostly because of that rest-and-rehab scheme, to ensure that he would be good to go in the playoffs. The results cant be argued. Wade is averaging 18.7 points on 52 per cent shooting, Miami is 12-3 in the playoffs and when getting more than three days rest — like the Heat will have before Game 1 in San Antonio on Thursday night — the perennial All-Star has had games of 23, 14, 27 and 23 points on a combined 60 per cent shooting. "Dwyane is playing great," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said Tuesday. "He looks a lot more spry and ready to go then he did last year in the finals." Maybe the biggest payoff of the regular-season maintenance plan has been how Wade has closed games in this post-season. Wade is shooting 56 per cent in fourth quarters during the playoffs, the best clip of his career and the best percentage of any guard with more than 30 shots in the final period of post-season games this season. San Antonios Danny Green is second on that list, shooting just under 49 per cent. Wade doesnt like talking about his place in history. But he knows what rarefied air he would be entering with a fourth title run. "I think weve all put ourselves in great situations, and were just going to continue to try to enjoy this moment that were in because its an amazing moment," Wade said. "Its something that, for a lifetime, is going to fulfil us as athletes. Even when we cant play this game, were going to always be able to talk about this." And now, when talking about his health, Wade has another one-word answer: "Better." ' ' '