Blatter hits back at Chung’s ‘corrupt’ comment

FIFA president Sepp Blatter is photographed while banknotes thrown by British comedian Simon Brodkin hurtle through the air during a press conference following the extraordinary FIFA Executive Committee at the headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, Monday, July 20, 2015. During the extraordinary FIFA Executive Committee meeting the agenda for the elective Congress for the FIFA presidency was finalized and approved: The congress will take place on Feb. 26. 2016. (Ennio Leanza/Keystone via AP)

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has slammed comments by Chung Mong-Joon, a candidate to take over football’s world body calling it a corrupt organization.

Blatter said he was disturbed by the South Korean industrialist’s outspoken comments at a press conference in Paris on Monday where he officially launched his candidacy.

Chung went on the attack against Blatter and UEFA leader Michel Platini, his rival in the FIFA race. “The real reason FIFA has become such a corrupt organization is because the same person (Blatter) has been running it for 40 years. Absolute power corrupts absolutely,” Chung said.

READ: Chung Mong-Joon announces bid to run for FIFA president

“It is disturbing, to say the least, to hear Dr. Chung Mong-Joon describe FIFA as ‘a corrupt organisation’,” Blatter said in reply.

“Even more so when one recalls – and as Dr. Chung cannot have forgotten – that he was a FIFA Vice-President and a FIFA Emergency Committee member for 17 years from 1994 up until 2011.”

Blatter said in the statement that “personal attacks” made by Dr. Chung at the press conference were “particularly disrespectful to all concerned.”

“I would like to stress again that FIFA is dedicated to improving the organization and will continue to strengthen its governance and accountability. Our work in this area continuously evolves, and we are focused on achieving the highest standards for the international football community.”

READ: Sepp Blatter’s term as IOC member ends

Chung made several attacks on FIFA’s leadership at the campaign launch in a Paris hotel saying that it was in a “profound crisis” over police inquiries into two corruption affairs. He said Platini should not be a candidate because he was too linked to FIFA’s past system.

Fourteen FIFA officials and sports business executives were charged by US authorities in May over more than $150 million in bribes allegedly paid for television and marketing deals. Swiss police are separately investigating the award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively.

Chung said that as long as there is no “clear evidence” of wrongdoing in the Qatar bid then FIFA had to keep its promises to the Gulf state which is spending billions of dollars preparing for the event.