Sepp Blatter got a huge boost in his FIFA presidential campaign on Friday as UEFA leaders urged Europe's 53 football federations to re-elect him.
UEFA President Michel Platini and his 15 executive committee colleagues signed a letter asking their members to back Blatter, FIFA's president since 1998, over his Qatari challenger Mohamed bin Hammam.
''The UEFA Executive Committee has decided to give its unanimous support to Mr. Joseph S. Blatter in the upcoming FIFA presidential elections and strongly recommends all UEFA member associations to do likewise,'' the one-line statement said.
The endorsement, if followed across Europe, could be enough to hand 75-year-old Blatter a fourth four-year term in office.
Blatter and bin Hammam go head-to-head in a poll on June 1 at the FIFA congress of up to 208 football nations in Zurich.
FIFA rules require the winner to get two-thirds of valid votes in the first ballot or a simple majority in the second round.
Platini, who does not have a vote, has significant influence as a popular leader who was re-elected by acclaim at UEFA's congress in Paris in March.
He had been expected to back Blatter, as a long-standing ally of the FIFA boss and to further his own presidential ambitions.
The former France great is viewed as a strong candidate to succeed Blatter, likely in 2015.
One of Platini's UEFA and FIFA executive committee colleagues told The Associated Press that support for Blatter was reached easily.
''It was a very straightforward and unanimous decision that was sent to Mr. Blatter today,'' Cypriot official Marios Lefkaritis said.
Blatter confirmed in Paris that his potential fourth term would be his last, which was interpreted as reassuring UEFA voters that Platini's time would soon come.
Bin Hammam also was in Paris and appeared to sense that some UEFA members saw his candidacy as a potential barrier.
The 61-year-old Asian Football Confederation President suggested he could reach a deal with Platini that would see him serve only one term before standing aside.
Bin Hammam can still collect scattered votes in Europe, though now needs the support of the 35-vote CONCACAF region led by veteran FIFA vice president Jack Warner.
He missed a chance to lobby at the CONCACAF congress in Miami this week because of problems getting a visa to enter the United States.
Bin Hammam is due in Trinidad on Tuesday for a hastily arranged meeting with 25 members of the Caribbean Football Union.
