By Paul Nicholson
August 17 – South Korea’s Chung Mong-Joon officially launched his FIFA presidency bid this morning in Paris saying that he would be a “crisis manager and a reformer” if he were elected. He said that under his leadership FIFA would not become a Eurocentric organisation and that he would take just one term to reinvent the governing body.
Chung, a fierce opponent of Blatter in the past, wasted no time in opening old wounds and mounting an aggressive attack on FIFA and president Sepp Blatter in particular.
“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.
Chung had a front-row seat during much of those 40 years. He headed his national football federation from 1993 to 2009 – during which time South Korea co-hosted the World Cup finals with Japan. He lost his seat on FIFA’s executive committee in 2011 to Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan.
Chung said that he would serve just one term of four years, if elected. “I can change FIFA in four years. That is my pledge to football fans in the world,” he said.
He has previously said that the presidency of FIFA was not the birthright of Europeans and has described UEFA president Michel Platini, the only other candidate to have so far announced he is running, as being “a product of the current system”.
A billionaire, Chung’s fortune is built on the Hyundai empire. Rumours from a generally reliable source are that he himself may be the subject of a FIFA ethics enquiry related to the South Korea World Cup bid, though they have not been confirmed officially.
In his announcement this morning Chung said he was a corruption-free candidate.
“Today FIFA is undergoing a profound crisis. Under these circumstances, the FIFA president must be a crisis manager and a reformer,” he said.
“The problem at FIFA is that those mired in corruption, the only thing they are interested in is hiding the corruption.”
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