Korean billionaire set to battle Platini for FIFA hot seat

South Korea’s Chung Mong-joon says he wants to replace Sepp Blatter as FIFA’s next president, pitching him against Michel Platini who declared his intention to run for the February 26 election on Wednesday.

Candidates have until October 26 to be nominated.

Chung is a former vice-president of world football’s governing body and the major shareholder of the industrial giant Hyundai.

He told the BBC’s World Football programme that rival Michel Platini was not the right man for FIFA.

“If I get elected, my job is not to enjoy the luxury of the office. My job is to change it,” he added.

The 63-year-old, who is worth $1.2bn (£769m) according to Forbes, continued: “It will be very difficult for Mr Platini to have any meaningful reforms. Mr Platini enjoys institutional support from the current structure of FIFA. Mr Platini is very much a product of the current system.”

Blatter, who has run FIFA since 1998, is standing down following a series of damaging corruption allegations against the organisation.

Chung, who believes he has a “good chance” of winning the election, said: “It is time that FIFA had a non-European leadership.

“FIFA became a closed organisation for President Blatter, his associates and his cronies and I want to change that”.

Chung lost his FIFA vice-presidency in 2010, to Prince Ali Bin al-Hussein of Jordan – who unsuccessfully stood against Blatter in May’s presidential election.

Meanwhile, Argentina football great Diego Maradona has said he wants to fight the “mafia” behind the corruption in FIFA, but stopped short of saying he would run for president.

The 54-year-old former World Cup winner told local television channel America: “I have to fight the mafia that still remains inside FIFA. I have to fight those who have for a long time stolen from inside FIFA.”

When asked if he would run for the presidency, he said: “I really want to be in FIFA.”

Meanwhile, Platini’s bid for the FIFA presidency has garnered no immediate enthusiasm from Africa despite France’s strong footballing ties with the continent.

A day after confirming he would stand to replace Sepp Blatter as leader of world football, the Frenchman has been criticised by one African association and given a lukewarm endorsement by one of his closest allies.

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“Platini would not represent change, he has been a FIFA vice-president for eight years. He should not replace Sepp Blatter, it would be unacceptable,” said Liberian Football Association President Musa Bility in a BBC interview.

Bility had declared his own candidacy but is expected to find it difficult to obtain the nomination of at least five associations that he needs to get on the ballot for next February’s election.

Platini has also failed to get an endorsement from former Cote d’Ivoire federation president Jacques Anouma, who served with him on the FIFA Executive Committee. Anouma was expected to push for African support for Platini but says he would rather take his cue from the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

“I do not deny the excellent relationship I have with Michel Platini as I have with many other leaders of world football,” he wrote on his website (www.jacquesanouma.ci).

“However I would like to advise that I will side with the decision of CAF to safeguard the interest of African football.”

CAF have not made any comment on the impending election.

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