Former FIFA VP Chung leaning toward running for top job

SEOUL — South Korean powerbroker Chung Mong-joon is leaning toward running for the FIFA presidency as a replacement for Sepp Blatter, telling The Associated Press that a non-European leader would help breathe “new wind” into football’s international governing body.

A former FIFA vice president, Chung also criticised the decision this week to allow Blatter to remain as president until the election on February 26, despite calls for him to immediately step down amid mounting pressure to reform as US and Swiss authorities investigate allegations of corruption.

“Blatter has been doing whatever he wants with FIFA for 40 years since his days as general secretary and while he said he’s going out, it doesn’t seem he really is,” Chung told the AP in a telephone interview Tuesday. “Letting Blatter manage FIFA and design reform plans before the February vote is comedy.”

Chung, who was a key figure in helping South Korea land the right to co-host the 2002 World Cup with Japan, has been a longtime critic of Blatter, whom he described as a dictatorial “little brat” in a memoir published in 2011.

Chung was a FIFA vice president for 17 years and was once considered a candidate to succeed Blatter before losing his seat in 2011. The billionaire scion of the Hyundai business group has also been a South Korean lawmaker and presidential candidate.

Chung said he plans to consult leaders of regional confederations and other key figures before he finalises his decision whether to run for FIFA’s top job. If he becomes president, Chung said he would aim to eliminate corruption and improve its accounting transparency. He said he would also try to strengthen football in Asia and other regions where the sport has most room to grow.

“I am positively considering running for the presidency and will be able to reveal my decision soon,” he said.

The February 26 date agreed by FIFA’s executive committee on Monday was a political victory for Blatter over European governing body UEFA and its supporters in other continents who wanted a December ballot.

UEFA President Michel Platini, Brazil great Zico and Liberia federation President Musa Bility are among the likely contenders to run for the FIFA presidency.

When asked about his potential chances, Chung said “there is no such thing as an easy election”.

“I have tried several times to become FIFA president, experienced parliamentary elections and also tried to become South Korean president,” he said, “so you could trust me on that.”

Blatter has seven months left at the top of world football’s governing body but his hope of putting the organisation’s troubles behind him before he goes looks forlorn.

Blatter, elected to the top position in 1998, will stand down on the date FIFA selected for an “elective congress” to choose his replacement.

FIFA’s answer on Monday to the corruption scandal that has engulfed it since the arrests of senior officials in May on US fraud and money laundering charges, was to announce the creation of another “task force” made up of people from within the body.

The 79-year-old Blatter clearly hopes they will come up with a package of reforms that will placate his critics and those of the organisation.

“My responsibility and mission is to make sure when at the end of February I come to the end of my career, I can say in FIFA we have started again the reform and have rebuilt the reputation of FIFA,” Blatter told a news conference.

But even if his task force, made up of representatives of the regional confederations but with a “neutral chairman” makes progress, it is hard to see how Blatter’s final months in charge will be anything other than fraught.

The US Department of Justice investigation into corruption, kickbacks and racketeering in football could lead to more charges, especially if some of those indicted agree to cooperate with authorities.

Blatter has not been charged with any wrongdoing. But former FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF President Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands, widely praised by Blatter and seen as his protege, pleaded not guilty in federal court in New York on Saturday to charges of racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering. He was released on $10 million bail.

In addition to the criminal case, the US Securities and Exchange Commission regulator was examining the behaviour of several companies with links to FIFA and other football organisations to see if there were possible violations of bribery laws.