Chung slams ‘sabotage’ by FIFA ethics committee

SEOUL: South Korean tycoon Chung Mong-Joon on Friday said “sabotage” by FIFA’s ethics committee was holding up his appeal against his six-year ban from football.

The former FIFA presidential candidate said the committee was deliberately withholding a statement which he needed for his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Chung said that nearly three months after his ban in early October, the committee had failed to produce the statement detailing the reasons for its decision.

“Even after its decision to suspend me, the ethics committee continues to deliberately sabotage my effort to appeal,” he wrote on his blog, mjfairplay.com.

“It is not only a blatant violation of justice but also of common sense,” Chung said. No immediate comment was available from FIFA’s ethics committee.

Chung was banned from football activities for six years by the committee, which also suspended FIFA chief Sepp Blatter, secretary-general Jerome Valcke and UEFA president Michel Platini for 90 days.

The billionaire scion of the Hyundai family was found to have contravened rules while lobbying for South Korea’s bid to host the 2022 World Cup, which was awarded to Qatar in 2010.

He petitioned a Swiss court for an injunction against the ban, so he could maintain his candidacy pending appeals to FIFA’s appeal committee and to CAS. But the petition was rejected.

Chung, a former FIFA vice president and Asian football powerbroker, launched his campaign for the FIFA presidency in August, and formally withdrew from the race in late October. A successor to Blatter will be elected on February 26.