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 Speaking at a news conference in Seoul on Tuesday, Chung read out a
nine-page statement, addressing the charges against him, which he
dismissed as a ploy "to prevent me from running for the President of
FIFA."
"The fundamental reason why I am being targeted is that I aimed
straight at the existing power structure of FIFA," Chung said.
Bound by confidentiality rules, FIFA's Ethics Committee has not made
any statements on Chung's case and there was no immediate response
to his comments on Tuesday.
Chung said he was being charged with violating six articles from
FIFA's Code of Ethics, which he said stemmed from his "support" for
South Korea's 2022 World Cup bid and his proposal to launch a Global
Football Fund (GFF).
"Ethics committee is not charging me with criminal offense, and it
is not charging me with 'bribery,' 'corruption' or 'conflict of
interest,' he said.
"All that the ethics committee is relying on is that I have not
fully 'cooperated' or 'collaborated' with the investigation and that
I had violated 'confidentiality' requirements."
Chung said his proposals for the establishment of a GFF were in line
with FIFA's rules at the time and had already been investigated and
cleared.
He provided copies of two letters, dated 10 Nov. 2010 and signed by
former FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke, stating that FIFA
agreed the integrity of the bidding process had not been affected so
the matter was deemed closed.
"Yet the Ethics Committee has now asked for 15 years of sanction for
this," Chung said.
"With the campaign season starting, even issues that had been closed
many years ago, have a way of being revived."
VINDICATION
The scion of Korea's Hyundai industrial conglomerate, Chung vowed to
fight the charges, adding "ultimately, I will prevail and will be
vindicated."
In November, Chung was named in FIFA's Ethics report into the
bidding process for the World Cups in 2018 and 2022, in which South
Korea made a bid to host.
The report followed an investigation led by U.S. lawyer Michael
Garcia and looked into letters that Chung sent, in late 2010, to
FIFA executive committee members about a proposal to establish a GFF
for soccer development.
"According to those letters, Korea intended to raise US$777 million
from 2011 to build new football infrastructure and renovate existing
facilities," said the report, which added that the fund was linked
to South Korea's 2022 bid.
"There was nothing unusual about GFF. The GFF was perfectly in line
with the football development projects that FIFA asked every bidding
country to propose as part of their bid requirement," Chung said.
"No money or personal favors were exchanged in relation to GFF and
no such charges were made against me."
Chung, a 63-year-old billionaire who previously served as a FIFA
vice-president, formally announced in August that he was running for
the FIFA presidency.
The incumbent, Sepp Blatter, is to stand down in February.
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Blatter has run FIFA for the past 17 years and recently become the
focus of a criminal investigation but has denied any wrongdoing and
has not been charged.
Chung has been heavily critical of Blatter, saying from the outset
that he feared his own presidential campaign would be undermined,
describing the Ethics Committee as Blatter's "hitman".
"The true danger is that they are not only sabotaging my candidacy.
They are sabotaging FIFA's election and FIFA itself," Chung said.
"As preposterous as it may sound, there are media reports that Mr.
Blatter plans to stay on as President once all the presidential
candidates are forced out.
"However, the election is in danger of being turned into a farce."
ONGOING INVESTIGATIONS
FIFA's awarding of the 2018 and 2022 competitions to Russia and
Qatar is just one of the strands under scrutiny from U.S. and Swiss
authorities investigating corruption in the organization that run's
the world's most popular sport.
Scandals surrounding global soccer exploded in May, when 14 soccer
officials and sports marketing executives were indicted on U.S.
charges of racketeering, money laundering and wire fraud in relation
to bribery schemes that dated back decades.
Last month, Blatter's right hand man Valcke was suspended following
accusations regarding ticket sales at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Valcke denies any wrongdoing.
A week later, Swiss prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into
Blatter on suspicion of mismanagement and misappropriation of funds.
Some of soccer's major sponsors have since issued calls for the
immediate resignation of Blatter but the 79-year-old has responded
by saying he would not quit.
"In June, the European Parliament urged Blatter to resign. Recently,
it was joined by the British government and some of FIFA's sponsors.
I appreciate their efforts," Chung said.
"But they are friends of football, not the constituents of FIFA. The
constituents of FIFA are the national associations.
"Therefore, it is not right for national association to remain
bystanders. FIFA is much sicker than it looks."
(Writing by Julian Linden in Singapore; Editing by Greg Stutchbury)
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