South Korean FIFA presidential candidate Chung Mong-joon Friday renewed his call for a fair election for the world's top football job, saying the sport's international governing body should step up its efforts to ensure transparent campaigns.
Last week, Chung held a press conference in Seoul to accuse the Asian Football Confederation of violating rules to openly back his rival candidate, UEFA President Michel Platini. Chung provided a copy of form letters that he said the AFC had sent to its member associations, except for South Korea and Jordan, seeking their support for Platini. The letters, Chung claimed, were supposed to be sent back to FIFA.
South Korea and Jordan were apparently excluded because they each have a candidate in the running: Chung and Jordanian Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein.
Chung said he had asked FIFA's Ad-hoc Electoral Committee and Ethics Committee on Aug. 31 to investigate the incident to see if FIFA Statutes and Electoral Regulations have been violated.
In his latest statement issued Friday, Chung said FIFA's Ad-hoc Electoral Committee informed him last Thursday that the AFC's activities had not violated any rules or regulations.
According to Chung, the committee wrote him that there have been "no relevant violations -- neither of the Electoral Regulations for the FIFA Presidency nor of the FIFA Statutes nor of any other FIFA regulations -- have occurred."
"There is no evidence at the Committee's disposal that improper influence or pressure would have been applied, or attempted to be applied, on FIFA member associations or their officials," the committee told Chung. "In view of the above, the Ad-hoc Electoral Committee is of the opinion that there are no indications of the integrity of the electoral process having been affected and consequently, no further action is deemed necessary in this context."
Chung fired more salvo Friday in response, saying the FIFA committee "hastily concluded" its inquiries without an in-depth investigation of relevant parties involved.
"We object to this conclusion in the strongest possible terms," Chung said through an English-language statement. "Even though it has been verified that AFC systematically distributed form letters in support of Mr. Platini, the Ad-hoc Electoral Committee did not even look into the possibility of a coordination between AFC and Mr. Platini, arguing that the committee only has jurisdiction over presidential candidates' activities and thus could not interfere in AFC's activities.
"This is tantamount to voluntarily forfeiting the committee's duty to ensure the fairness of the election for FIFA president," Chung added.
Also last Thursday, the AFC released a statement on its own to defend its distribution of the letters. Chung pointed out that the AFC didn't even make a reference to its letters and didn't deny it is campaigning for Platini.
Chung further said the AFC's lack of action is in contrast with what the Confederation of African Football did. After learning that one of its vice presidents circulated similar letters to CAF member associations, the African body "took measures to rectify the situation," Chung said.
"The CAF's and the AFC's radically different responses to the same incident clearly show that the two confederations have fundamentally different understanding of its seriousness," Chung added.
The South Korean candidate also charged that FIFA is keeping a contradictory stance that actions by both the AFC and the CAF are legal.
"If the Ad-hoc Electoral Committee thinks that the AFC's activities was not illegal, then the CAF's corrective measures constitute an obstruction of a legitimate campaign activity," he said. "In this case, FIFA should take disciplinary actions against the CAF. If, however, the CAF's corrective measures are judged to be proper, the AFC's activities should be categorized as an electoral fraud and FIFA should take disciplinary actions against the AFC and implement relevant measures to rectify the current situation."
Chung then urged the Ad-hoc Electoral Committee to conduct a more thorough investigation to see if Platini and AFC President Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa plotted the incident together.
Chung, FIFA vice president from 1994 to 2011, is set to run in the Feb. 26 election to replace Sepp Blatter, the embattled current boss who has offered to resign with FIFA mired in damaging corruption scandals. Blatter was elected to his fifth mandate in May and will remain at his post until the election. (Yonhap)
