New challenger emerges for Fifa presidency 08/10/2010 |
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South Korea's Chung Mong-joon has hinted that he could challenge Sepp Blatter for the Fifa presidency in next May’s elections.
Blatter looked like he would be re-elected unopposed after heading off a number of potential candidates, but Chung – who has previously called for a challenge to the long-standing president – has reopened the possibility of a contest, saying it would be “healthy” to have competition for the post.
Chung said in a keynote address at the Leaders in Football conference at Stamford Bridge on Thursday (October 7) that it was "too early to say there would be no contender next May".
"As for the 2015 election, it is likely that there will be several candidates from South America, Asia and other confederations as well,” he added.
Asked if he would stand, Chung, one of the more high-profile of Fifa's eight vice-presidents, laughed and said: "I had not thought of that. Now you have asked me, I will think about it."
Any challenge to Blatter has long been expected to come from Asia. But Mohamed Bin Hammam of Qatar, the president of the Asian Football Confederation, confirmed he had no plans to stand against Blatter and would support him for re-election. However, he said there "could well be an Asian candidate for 2011".
Blatter has been Fifa president since 1998 and Chung continued: "To keep an organisation like Fifa healthy, you need competition."
Asked if a challenge would be a good thing, Chung replied: "You need challenge and competition at the summit of anything – Fifa, or the summit of a mountain. We need to keep Fifa healthy.
"The world football family has to encourage competition – there are good people among existing Fifa executive-committee members. You must encourage competition. We could have a candidate from Asia or other confederations. We had better try to find good competition and good candidates."
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