FIFA presidency bid: Chung attacks Blatter and Platini

South Korean candidate fighting for ‘transparency’ ahead of 2016 elections

PARIS: South Korean billionaire Chung Mong-Joon on Monday launched his formal campaign for the FIFA presidency with a blistering attack on outgoing leader Sepp Blatter and a vow to fix the scandal-tainted world football body in four years.

“Today FIFA is undergoing a profound crisis. Under these circumstances, the FIFA president must be a crisis manager and a reformer,” the 63-year-old Chung, a former FIFA vice-president, told a press conference in Paris.

“The problem at FIFA is that those mired in corruption, the only thing they are interested in is hiding the corruption. The real reason FIFA has become such a corrupt organization is because the same person [Blatter] has been running it for 40 years. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. I can change FIFA in four years. That is my pledge to football fans in the world.”

UEFA president Michel Platini, Brazil football legend Zico and Liberian Football Association chief Musa Bility have also announced they are candidates. Prince Ali bin alHussein, another former FIFA vice president from Jordan, is also considering a run.

Platini is considered the frontrunner and has already secured public support from key national federations and regional confederations.

But Chung said the Frenchman should not be a candidate because he was so close to the FIFA system and a former close ally of Blatter, who has said he will stand down when the election is held on February 26.

“This is not a good situation for Plaitini and I think it is good for him not to be a candidate this time. He is still very young.”

Chung added that Blatter and Platini once had a “father and son” relationship but the Frenchman has now turned against the FIFA leader.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 18^th,  2015.

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