Chung joins FIFA race, takes shot at rival Platini
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South Korean billionaire Chung Mong-joon confirmed yesterday he was joining the race to replace FIFA president Sepp Blatter, and painted likely front-runner Michel Platini as an untrustworthy stooge tainted by scandal.
A former FIFA vice president and Asian football powerbroker, Chung described himself as a corruption-free candidate with a global, non-Eurocentric vision to take football’s governing body into a new era.
The billionaire scion of Korea’s Hyundai group said he would formally announce his candidacy to replace Blatter next week and also pledged that, if elected, he would only serve a single, four-year term.
“During those four years I hope I can fulfil my agenda, making FIFA a true, sporting NGO — open, transparent, moral, ethical and truly global,” Chung said in Seoul.
The 63-year-old is among a shortlist of declared and likely candidates that includes UEFA president Platini and Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan who ousted Chung from the FIFA executive board in 2011.
Platini, who confirmed his candidacy on Wednesday, is currently seen as the favorite.
Blatter decided to stand down shortly after being re-elected as president in June with scandal-hit FIFA’s reputation in tatters. He announced last week that the election of his successor would be held on February 26, 2016.
Platini has positioned himself since just prior to last year’s World Cup as one of the most outspoken opponents to Blatter’s regime, but Chung argued that the Frenchman was fatally tainted by his past associations with the president.
“Platini is good for football, but whether he can be a good FIFA president? I don’t think so. He is a product of the current FIFA system,” Chung said. “There are several questions we can have whether Platini can symbolize a new era for FIFA or whether he is simply a protege of Blatter.
“I want to ask Michel whether he really believes that he can cut off his relationship with Blatter; whether he can reveal all the wrongdoings, corruptions, criminal acts committed by Blatter; whether he can really disclose all those things.”
While Chung was outlining his plans to become Asia’s first FIFA president, the region’s football chief Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim backed Platini as, “a unique candidate who would bring stability and a smooth transition to normality for FIFA in this difficult situation”.
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