By Andrew Warshaw
October 5 – South Korea’s heavyweight candidate Chung Mong-joon has staged a late u-turn and has decided to attend this week’s Leaders in Sport Business Summit in London despite rumours circulating about his FIFA presidential prospects.
Insideworldfootball was informed by Chung’s office via email last week that he would not be taking up a scheduled appearance to present a “manifesto for the future of world football” but conference organisers have now confirmed he has accepted the invitation to speak on Wednesday after all.
Highly-placed sources have indicated that an announcement regarding Chung’s future is imminent, possibly this week, and it is not immediately clear whether Chung’s apparent change of heart is linked to speculation that he is facing a possible FIFA ethics suspension over his conduct during the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid process.
One possibility is that, with the October 26 deadline for nominations less than three weeks away, Chung is playing the percentage game and cannot afford to pass up an opportunity to put his message across, especially with presidential rival Michel Platini facing possible investigation himself over the SFr2 million payment he received from FIFA in 2011.
The probe against Chung is understood to have been prompted by him writing letters to FIFA executive committee members ahead of the December 2010, joint ballot for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup, informing them of a plan to contribute $777 million to worldwide football development South Korea won the 2022 vote. Investigators are also understood to be looking into payments made by Chung to Haiti and Pakistan, ostensibly for disaster relief.
Chung has persistently denied any wrongdoing but several months ago, in his summary of the infamous Michael Garcia report, FIFA’s ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert referred specifically to the South Korean bid for 2022. Eckert wrote that the Garcia report concluded that the $777 million fund letters “created at least the appearance of a conflict or an offer of benefits to FIFA Executive Committee members in an effort to influence their votes.”
“According to the findings contained in the Report regarding the Korea 2022 bid, there are certain indications of potentially problematic conduct of specific individuals in the light of relevant FIFA Ethics rules. The Chairman of the Adjudicatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee trusts that the Investigatory Chamber will take appropriate steps if it deems such measures appropriate and feasible.”
Chung, like all the other candidates, has not yet made public the five nominations he needs from FIFA associations to run for president. For his part, he has slammed the manner in which his campaign is being undermined and has issued a damning and defiant indictment of the entire election process.
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