SOCCER-FIFA/CHUNG MONG-JOON Chung Mong-joon holds a news conference in Paris to launch his bid for FIFA Presidency

Record ID: 143669

  • Title: SOCCER-FIFA/CHUNG MONG-JOON Chung Mong-joon holds a news conference in Paris to launch his bid for FIFA Presidency
  • Date: 17th August 2015
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (AUGUST 17, 2015) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** CHUNG MONG-JOON AT PODIUM (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHUNG MONG-JOON, FIFA HONORARY VICE PRESIDENT, SAYING: "Friends, ladies and gentlemen, Today, it is my great privilege and honor to announce my candidacy for the presidency of FIFA. "FIFA is about football. But, it is more than a game, it is ab
  • Embargoed: 1st September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAEY6278V09NMGR6VTM6PD4488W
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: South Korea's Chung Mong-joon formally launched his bid to become president of world football's scandal-hit governing body FIFA in France, the home of rival Michel Platini.
    Chung, a former FIFA vice president and fierce critic of outgoing president Sepp Blatter, repeated his view that the Swiss was at the centre of the organisation's problems.
    "FIFA is about football. But, it is more than a game, it is about governance," he said.
    "Today, FIFA is undergoing a profound crisis. Under these circumstances, the FIFA President should be a crisis manager and a reformer. He must be more than just a head of the technical department.
    "It has pained me to witness the spectacle of the FIFA President being booed by fans at football stadiums everywhere. In 2011, when a European sports magazine conducted a opinion survey asking, "What do you think about FIFA President Joseph Blatter?", 95 percent said, "He is ruining football."
    "Continuity is very important, but so is change."
    The 63-year-old billionaire scion of South Korea's Hyundai industrial conglomerate is viewed as one of the favourites for the job but faces stiff competition from Frenchman Platini, the head of Europe's governing body UEFA.
    FIFA's corruption troubles came to a head in May when U.S. prosecutors indicted nine football officials, most of whom had FIFA positions, and five marketing and broadcasting company executives over a range of alleged offences, including fraud, money-laundering and racketeering.
    "The problem at FIFA is that those mired in corruption, the only thing they are interested in is hiding the corruption," said Chung.
    "In his resignation statement, President Blatter blamed the Executive Committee for blocking the reforms and later blamed the Confederations for corruption. The real reason FIFA has become such a corrupt organization is because the same person has been running it for 40 years. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
    "The core issue of the coming election is whether the 40 year old system of corruption should continue or not.
    "Organizations begin to corrupt when the leader thinks he is indispensable. If I am elected, I will only serve one term, four years. I can change FIFA in four years. This is my pledge to all the football fans in the world."
    Blatter was re-elected for a fifth term as FIFA president on May 29, but four days later said he would lay down his mandate amid the world crisis in the body's history. He will stay on until the election on Feb. 26.
    Chung, who told Reuters in late July he was wary of Blatter trying to sabotage his campaign, has been travelling the world gathering support for his bid.
    He said he received assurances of support from within CONCACAF on a recent trip to the United States and visited China last week to attend the East Asian Cup, a regional tournament involving the two Koreas, China and Japan.
    CONCACAF is the ruling body for football in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
    Chung, who headed the Korea Football Association from 1993 to 2009 - during which time South Korea co-hosted the World Cup finals with Japan - lost his seat on FIFA's executive committee in 2011 to then-Blatter ally Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan.
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