SEOUL: Chung Mong-joon, the South Korean former vice-president of FIFA, has insisted he will go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport over his ban from all football writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

Last year Chung had planned to run for the presidency of the world football federation. However he was forced to withdraw after being banned by the ethics committee over events during the 2018-2022 World Cup bidding process.

Earlier this week Chung’s ban from football was cut from six years to five by the FIFA appeal committee. But that did not satisfy him.

In a statement, Chung said he intended to fight on to clear his own name and ??

Chung said: “My effort to reform FIFA and restore my honour will continue. Yesterday’s decision by the appeals committee to ban me for five years is disappointing.

“FIFA’s Ethics Committee started an investigation against me for “vote-trading” and “appearance of offering of benefit” during the bid for 2018-2022 World Cup venues. Both allegations were dropped in their final report.

“The reason that I was given a six-year ban regardless, was for ‘failure to cooperate’ with the investigation, ‘breach of confidentiality’ and an ‘unethical attitude.’

‘Groundless charges’

“An investigation was started on groundless charges and when I tried to prove my innocence by showing why the accusations were false, I was accused of failing to cooperate and for an unethical attitude.”

Chung said the appeal committee had dropped the breach of confidentiality charge leaving “only two accusations, that I had failed to cooperate with the investigation and that I had an unethical attitude.”

These, said Chung, were “subjective and ambiguous charges.” The action hd been “part of an unethical plot on the part of certain elements within FIFA designed to prevent me from further involving myself with FIFA.”

Chung then revisited his historic disagreements with the FIFA regime of former president Sepp Blatter and questioned the independence of the ethics committee, an issue which continues to dog the current presidency of Gianni Infantino.

He said: “What I find most disappointing is the fact that FIFA has not really changed. Had it fully acknowledged that FIFA’s way of doing things were wrong, such a decision would never have been rendered.

“Correcting the wrongful decision by FIFA’s Ethics and Appeals Committees is not only a way to restore my honour but also my own contribution to the reform of FIFA.

“As such, I shall exhaust all legal options available to me including an appeal to Court of Arbitration for Sport.”

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