“It is disturbing, to say the least, to hear Dr Chung Mong-Joon describe FIFA as ‘a corrupt organisation’,” said Blatter. PHOTO: AFP
Blatter said he was disturbed by the South Korean industrialist’s outspoken comments at a press conference in Paris on Monday where he officially launched his candidacy.
Chung went on the attack against Blatter and UEFA leader Michel Platini, his rival in the FIFA race. “The real reason FIFA has become such a corrupt organisation is because the same person [Blatter] has been running it for 40 years. Absolute power corrupts absolutely,” said Chung.
“It is disturbing, to say the least, to hear Dr Chung Mong-Joon describe FIFA as ‘a corrupt organisation’,” said Blatter in reply. “Even more so when one recalls — and as Dr. Chung cannot have forgotten — that he was a FIFA Vice-President and a FIFA Emergency Committee member for 17 years from 1994 up until 2011.”
Blatter said in the statement that “personal attacks” made by Dr Chung at the press conference were “particularly disrespectful to all concerned.”
Chung made several attacks on FIFA’s leadership at the campaign launch in a Paris hotel saying that it was in a “profound crisis” over police inquiries into two corruption affairs. He said Platini should not be a candidate because he was too linked to FIFA’s past system.
Chung also said that as long as there is no “clear evidence” of wrongdoing in the Qatar bid then FIFA had to keep its promises to the Gulf state which is spending billions of dollars preparing for the event.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 19th, 2015.
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