SEOUL: Chung Mong-gyu, the newly re-elected South Korean federation president, has pulled out of the election for a seat on the FIFA Council writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

A KFA statement said that Chung, South Korea’s chef de mission at the imminent Rio 2016 Games, had decided to focus on the Olympics. In fact, in a tough political field, his prospects of election were slim.

The Asian Football Confederation will stage an election for its three additional members on the expanded world governing body on September 27.

However the KFA noted that the chief executive of construction company firm Hyundai Development may be nominated for an AFC vice-presidential slot.

Last week Chung was re-elected to a second KFA term by a unanimous vote of its 98 members. The 54-year-old, a former commissioner of the K-League, is a younger cousin of former FIFA vice-president Chung Mong-joon.

Chung was indicted without detention in 1999 on charges of creating slush funds and was ordered in 2006 to pay $26,370 in fines. He said: “I can give FIFA my explanation, but it will take a lot of effort to do so and, since this will overlap with the Olympics, I decided I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on the Olympics if I took that route.”

The current four Asian members of the FIFA Council are AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa (vice-president), Prince Tengku Abdullah (Malaysia), Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah (Kuwait) and Kohzo Tashima (Japan).

Remaining candidates are Zhang Jian (China), Ali Kafashian Naeni (Iran), Saoud A Aziz Al-Mohannadi (Qatar) and Zainudin Nordin (Singapore).

Australia’s Moya Dodd, currently a co-opted member of the FIFA Council, is standing for the AFC’s female council slot which is also being contested by Mahfuza Ahkter (Bangladesh) and Han Un Gyong (North Korea).

The FIFA deadline for additional council members is September 30 ahead of a first formal full meeting in Zurich on October 13 and 14.

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