DUBROVNIK, Croatia (AFP) — UEFA president Michel Platini said yesterday that he will decide whether to run for the top job in world football at or after next year’s World Cup.

“I haven’t decided yet what I’ll do in the future and I’m still giving myself a few months to think about it,” said Platini, who skippered France to the 1984 European Championship title.

“I’ll make my decision during or after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, not before,” he added at a meeting of UEFA members in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Platini, who has been the president of European football’s governing body since 2007, is seen as a leading candidate to succeed current FIFA boss Sepp Blatter.

The former Nancy, Saint-Etienne and Juventus midfielder, who played 72 times for France and won the Ballon d’Or three times during his playing career, added that he would be heartbroken to leave UEFA as he loved the organisation “deeply and whole-heartedly”.

But he recognised that the questions over his future would not go away and he needed to take the time to reflect.

“Then again, the (FIFA) elections aren’t for another two years and I think that it would be egotistical on my part to make them a subject of discussion or debate now while football has more important issues than me,” he told delegates.

“Let’s concentrate then on real pressing issues and we’ll have all the time in the world to come back to my future over the next few months.”

No candidate has officially declared his candidacy to challenge or succeed Blatter, who has blown hot and cold whenever the subject of a further term has come up.