South Korean FIFA presidential candidate Chung Mong-joon has asked the governing body's Electoral Committee to reinvestigate his complaint that the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) had sent unsolicited letters to its members urging them to support his rival Michel Platini at next year's election.
Chung said last week that he had written to the committee, protesting that the letters were in breach of FIFA's election guidelines and threatened to “undermine the fairness” of the poll, which will be held on Feb. 26 to decide the successor to Sepp Blatter.
The AFC denied any wrongdoing, saying it had only sent the letters as a guideline after it had been contacted by member associations seeking advice on how they could convey their backing of a specific candidate.
Chung said the electoral committee had since informed him that it did not consider the AFC's activities to be a violation of any rules or regulations.
But the South Korean billionaire, unhappy with the decision, released a strongly-worded statement via his spokesman on Friday asking the committee to reinvestigate the case.
“We object to this conclusion in the strongest possible terms,” said the statement.
“Even though it has been verified that AFC systematically distributed form letters in support of Mr Platini, the Ad-hoc Electoral Committee did not even look into the possibility of a coordination between AFC and Mr Platini, arguing that the committee only has jurisdiction over presidential candidates’ activities and thus could not interfere in AFC’s activities.
“This is tantamount to voluntarily forfeiting the committee’s duty to ensure the fairness of the election for FIFA President.”
Chung, a former FIFA vice-president, formally announced last month that he was running for the FIFA presidency. Jordan's Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein is also among the candidates.
The 63-year-old Chung has been a vocal critic of both Blatter and Platini, and has argued that FIFA needs a new leader to reform the organisation.
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