FIFA Suspends Presidential Candidate Chung Mong-joon

South Korea’s and FIFA presidential candidate Chung Mong-joon, is facing a 15-year suspension on several charges relating to violations of the organization’s code of ethics.

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 dismay him from running for the President of FIFA.

Chung, a former FIFA vice president, alleged that the FIFA’s Ethics Committee has sabotaged his campaign for the FIFA Presidency, and attacked his colleagues for leaks that he says are designed to hurt his candidacy.

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During an interview with reporters, Chung said, “I am now under scrutiny by the Ethics Committee for letters I sent to my fellow Executive Committee members explaining a proposal by the Korean Bidding Committee to launch a ‘Global Football Fund,’ which according to the Ethics Committee ‘appeared’ improper.

“From the beginning, it was clear that the Ethics Committee was undertaking this so-called ‘investigation’ to prevent me from running for president of FIFA.

“Can you guess who these highly-placed FIFA executives might be? I’ll leave it to you to decide.

“People say that FIFA’s Ethics Committee is Mr. Blatter’s ‘hitman.’ They never hit him but only those who challenge Mr. Blatter.”

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“There was nothing unusual about (the) 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.”

“No money or personal favors were exchanged in relation to the GFF.”

The Qatar bid, along with the 2018 winning bid from Russia, have been strained by allegations of fraud and impropriety, but the world football governing body has said there are no grounds to strip hosting rights from either Qatar or Russia.

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