UEFA Leader is Set to Pursue FIFA's Top Job

The race to become the next FIFA president officially began July 20, when the man who is giving up the post, Sepp Blatter, announced that a special election to name his successor would be held in February. A week later, the question of who will replace Blatter, FIFA's leader since 1998, finally has some possible answers.

Michel Platini, the head of European soccer's confederation, UEFA, will announce as early as this week that he will run for what many believe is the most powerful position in international sports, according to two soccer officials who have been briefed on his campaign. Merely by entering the race, Platini, 60, a former midfielder for the French national team who was once considered the world's best player, instantly became a heavy favorite to win the election, though he will surely face competition.

Chung Mong-joon, a South Korean billionaire whose family heads the Hyundai conglomerate, leads a group of other potential candidates. Chung, one of the most influential officials in Asian soccer, formerly served as a FIFA vice president and was a member of its executive committee.

Other possible candidates include: Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, who ran unsuccessfully against Blatter in May; Musa Bility, the president of Liberia's soccer association, who broke ranks with his African compatriots in voting against Blatter in the 2011 presidential election; and at least two other former star players: Zico, of Brazil, who played in three World Cups and has stated publicly he hopes to replace Blatter, and David Ginola, of France, who mounted a largely satirical campaign - backed by an Irish betting company - before the last election.

Platini, however, seems to have the most institutional support. Many soccer officials believe Platini would be the best candidate because he is familiar with FIFA - he headed the organizing committee when France hosted the 1998 World Cup and has served on FIFA's executive committee since 2002 - and is seen as progressive enough to help push for significant reform. With FIFA mired in the most significant crisis of its 111-year history, Platini has been presenting himself as a sturdy and familiar leader.

Each candidate has until Oct. 26 to obtain the support of five national federations, which is needed for a nomination, and all will be subject to a new, stricter background check before the election.

According to the two soccer officials, Platini has already received strong messages of support from four of FIFA's six confederations: UEFA; CONCACAF, which represents North and Central America, and the Caribbean; South America's CONMEBOL; and Asia's AFC. These are not blanket endorsements - each of FIFA's 209 national federations will cast its own vote for president - but they were enough to convince Platini that he would have a very strong chance of earning the necessary 105 votes to succeed Blatter.

Critics of Platini have most recently pointed to his connection with Qatar, which stunned the sport when it won the hosting rights to the 2022 World Cup in a vote clouded by accusations of corruption. Qatar's victory over the United States, among other bidders, occurred in 2010. Swiss authorities recently announced an investigation that is primarily focused on suspicions of bribery and other improprieties associated with that vote by FIFA's executive committee.

Platini, UEFA's president since 2007, has not been linked to any illegal activity but is one of the few voters who have publicly acknowledged voting for Qatar. In the years since, Platini has defended that vote amid questions about his being influenced by the French government and his frequent interactions with Mohammad bin Hammam, the former Qatari soccer official at the center of several scandals related to the 2010 vote.

Platini's support of Qatar may actually be a positive for his campaign. One of the main issues facing him as the leader of UEFA was the impression that he does not share Blatter's interest in helping the smaller nations among FIFA's membership. Much of Blatter's longevity with FIFA - he joined the organization in 1975 - was due to his focus on the smaller federations that do not have the popular top leagues that nations such as England, France and Germany do, but who make up the majority of the voting membership.

Chung, known as M.J., is expected to enter the race in August. A South Korean politician and an heir to the Hyundai industrial fortune, he spent 17 years as a vice president of FIFA. Chung plans to announce his candidacy for the presidency in Zurich next month, he said, and he pointed to his public history of calling for transparency years before the recent corruption scandal broke open.

He has a record of tangling with Blatter, dating back more than a decade. While on FIFA's executive committee, Chung made repeated requests for Blatter to publicize his pay. He also called for Blatter to release reports on site inspections during the World Cup bidding process, specifically those related to the 2002 tournament that were co-hosted by South Korea and Japan after Blatter suggested that Japan had an advantage over South Korea. Chung also opposed the simultaneous selections of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup host cities in 2010.

But his efforts were unsuccessful, and in a 2011 autobiography, Chung expressed regret about his time on the executive committee. "I am deeply disappointed about the lack of transparency and fairness," he wrote in the book, according to a translation from Korean. "In this regard at least, I am afraid that I have failed."

Still, in an interview in New York this month, he said he wanted another shot at reform, which he said he thought was possible only after Blatter's departure. "He's been running FIFA for 40 years," he said, "and it's the fish head that stinks first."

© 2015 New York Times News Service