Fifa candidate Chung Mong-joon claims to be victim of smear campaign by Fifa ethics committee

Chung Mong-joon had claimed Sepp Blatter would try to sabotage his presidential campaign

South Korean candidate Chung Mong-joon (Getty Images)

Fifa presidential hopeful Chung Mong-joon has revealed that Fifa’s ethics committee is seeking to suspend him from the organisation for 15 years, a move which he said is calculated “to prevent me from running for the president of Fifa”.

At a press conference in Seoul, Chung, a billionaire businessman and the largest stakeholder in car-maker Hyundai, one of Fifa’s largest sponsors, read out a lengthy statement in which he said the charges against him stem from his support for South Korea’s 2022 World Cup bid.

It has long been alleged that Chung, a member of Fifa’s Executive Committee at the time, and one of 23 men who took part in the 2010 vote that awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cup votes to Russia and Qatar, discussed the possibility of swapping his vote in the 2018 ballot in return for support for South Korea in the 2022 vote, possibly involving England’s 2018 bid.

Fifa’s investigation into corruption in the 2018 and 2022 bids, published by the head of Fifa’s ethics committee, the German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, concluded: “Korea intended to raise $777m from 2011 to build new football infrastructure and renovate existing facilities,” and added the fund was linked to South Korea’s 2022 bid.

I am being targeted because I aimed straight at the power structure

&#13; <p>Chung Moon-joon</p>&#13;

But Chung said his proposals were in line with Fifa’s rules and that he had been officially cleared of any wrong-doing almost five years ago.

“The fundamental reason why I am being targeted is that I aimed straight at the existing power structure of Fifa,” he said. “Ultimately, I will prevail and will be vindicated.”

Chung’s statement also revealed details about a meeting with England 2018’s former bid leader and Fifa vice-president Geoff Thompson, Prince William and Prime Minister David Cameron, in which it has previously been alleged an offer of exchange votes was made.

“The Investigatory Chamber [IC] initially thought that they had a strong case against me. One of the questions that the IC sent me on 13 February 2015 was the following: ‘Would it surprise you to learn that the chairman of England 2018, Mr Geoff Thompson, has admitted to agreeing to trade your vote for Korea 2022, in exchange for England’s vote for Korea 2022?’

“This allegedly happened when I last met Mr Geoff Thompson when together we paid a courtesy visit on Prince William at the Prince’s request in his suite at Baur au Lac Hotel in Zurich on 1 December 2010, one day before the vote. When I went to the Prince’s suite, Prime Minister Cameron was also there.”

Chung has claimed Fifa president Sepp Blatter would seek to sabotage his bid, calling the supposedly independent ethics committee Blatter’s “hitman”. “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 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.”