South Korea’s Chung Moong-joon has declared intention to succeed Sepp Blatter as Fifa’s next president.
Chung is a former vice-president of world football’s governing body and the major shareholder of automotive manufacturers Hyundai.
He told the BBC’s World Football programme he wants to replace the 79-year-old Swiss and 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.
“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.”
Chung Moon-joon Wants to Succeed Sepp Blatter as Fifa’s Next President.
Platini announced he will be candidate for Fifa presidency on Wednesday and has not be spared of criticisms from oppositions.
Candidates have until 26 October to declare to run in the election which comes up on 26 February.
The English Football Association has confirmed it will back Uefa president Platini’s bid for election.
Chung, who lost his Fifa vice-presidency in 2010 to Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, believes he has a “good chance” of winning the election.
“It is time that Fifa had a non-European leadership,” he said.
“FIFA became a closed organisation for president Blatter, his associates and his cronies and I want to change that.”
Blatter has occupied football’s highest position since 1998 and was re-elected for a fifth term on 29 May, but announced he will stand down four days later in the wake of the biggest scandal in the history of world football.
Seven high-ranking football officials were arrested at at a five-star hotel in Zurich as part of a U.S. investigation into allegations of fraud at football’s governing level Fifa. Two other ex-Fifa executives were also indicted in the U.S. investigation, including five marketing associates.
A separate probe of Fifa’s decision to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments to Russia and Qatar by Swiss authorities is also ongoing.
Head of Liberia FA, Musa Bility, has already declared his candidacy. Bility has also said Platini’s candidacy is unacceptable and that world football’s top job needed to be occupied by non-European.
Former Brazilian international Zico and ex-France winger David Ginola are other outsiders who have also said they will contest for Fifa presidency.
Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, who was beaten by Blatter in May’s congress, is also likely to confirm his candidacy.
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