Rival candidates urge football body to discipline incumbent chief running in election

Two rival candidates in the election for the top South Korean football job have both urged the governing body to discipline its incumbent chief, Chung Mong-gyu, as demanded by the sports ministry.

Shin Moon-sun, former player and television analyst, said Monday the Korea Football Association (KFA) must quickly act on the demand by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and hand down a penalty on Chung, who is seeking his fourth term as KFA president.

In announcing findings of its monthslong probe into the KFA in November, the ministry sought “at least the suspension” of Chung and other senior executives over a number of irregularities, including the controversial hiring of Hong Myung-bo as the new men’s national team head coach in July.

The KFA appealed the ruling, but the ministry dismissed it on Jan. 2. The KFA is required to take action on Chung within a month.

“The KFA must open disciplinary proceedings on Chung as soon as possible,” Shin said at an impromptu press conference Monday. “The deadline set by the ministry is fast approaching, but we have not seen any signs that the KFA is about to take action.”

Shin echoed the sentiment expressed by another candidate, former men’s national team head coach Huh Jung-moo, who had said Friday the KFA must no longer waste any time in disciplining Chung.

“If the KFA is trying to get Chung elected and have him avoid any penalty, then it would be wise to forget about such plans,” Huh said in a statement, adding that Chung’s victory would have to be certified by the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee.

The KFA president election was originally scheduled for Jan. 8 but was postponed on the eve of that when the Seoul Central District Court granted an injunction filed by Huh to stop the proceedings. Huh had raised issues with the composition of the KFA’s election management committee and claimed the KFA deliberately tried to exclude a certain sector of voters from the electoral college.

The KFA later announced the election would instead be held on Jan. 23, but then Shin and Huh both balked at it on the grounds that they had never agreed to the rescheduling. The election was then postponed indefinitely when all eight members of the election management committee resigned on Jan. 10.

The KFA hopes to form a new election committee by the end of January and resume preparing for the election in early February.

Also on Monday, vote-holding KFA delegates held an emergency general meeting, after which they adopted a statement calling for a fair and transparent presidential election.

The delegates said they were “extremely concerned” that the KFA had not been able to determine the new date for the election and added the football body should try to minimize damage from administrative vacuum.

The delegates said the KFA must respond to the spread of baseless accusations and false information that can only cause further division within the football community.

Without naming names, the delegates expressed “grave regrets” over certain candidates’ attempts to distort facts and damage the impartiality of the election by attacking the election management committee.

“Any remarks that tarnish the integrity and honor of the KFA, and create anxiety and instability within the football community must be stopped,” the delegates said. “We would like to ask all candidates to show that they are serious about growing South Korean football, and the KFA to do its best to regain the public’s trust with a transparent and clean election.”