Chung Mong-Joon Withdraws From FIFA Presidential Race
Chung Mong-Joon said the ban handed down by FIFA's independent ethics committee had forced him to miss the October 26 deadline for filing his candidacy.
South Korean tycoon Chung Mong-Joon formally announced on Monday he was withdrawing from the race for the FIFA presidency due to an "unjust" ban from the sport. (Chung Mong-Joon to Appeal Against Six Year Ban)
On his newly-launched blog, mjfairplay.com, Chung said the ban handed down by FIFA's independent ethics committee had forced him to miss the October 26 deadline for filing his candidacy.
"Because of the committee's unjust sanctions... it is now time to officially withdraw my candidacy for the next FIFA president," he wrote.
The billionaire scion of the Hyundai family was found to have contravened rules while lobbying for South Korea's bid for the 2022 World Cup, which was awarded to Qatar in 2010.
He was banned for six years by the ethics committee in early October, which also suspended FIFA head Sepp Blatter, secretary-general Jerome Valcke and UEFA president Michel Platini for 90 days.
Reiterating denials of any wrongdoing, Chung said he had been subjected to "constant harassment" and unjust "persecution" from the moment he announced he was a candidate to replace Blatter.
"As FIFA leaked information to the media, portraying me as an unethical person, I felt I was left naked, helpless to defend myself, as they repeatedly cut me with a sharp knife," he wrote.
Chung had petitioned a Swiss court for an injunction against the ban so that he could maintain his candidacy pending his appeal to FIFA's appeal committee and to the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
But the court rejected his petition.
A former FIFA vice president and Asian football powerbroker, Chung had launched his campaign for the FIFA presidency in mid-August, describing himself as a corruption-free candidate with a global, non-Eurocentric vision to take football's governing body into a new era.
In his blog post, the 63-year-old said he would not sit silently in the background after pulling out of the race.
"Even though I cannot run in this election, I believe there is still much that I can do," he said.
"As someone who loves football, I will continue to speak out frankly about FIFA's problems," he added.