by Our Sports Desk

Announcing his bid to run for Fifa president, Chung Mong Joon yesterday pledged to help the governing body clean itself up if he gets elected.

Speaking at a news conference in Paris, the South Korean said: “It is my privilege and honour to announce my candidacy,” before quickly turning his sights on long-serving president Sepp Blatter.

After 17 years as Fifa president, Blatter said on June 2 he was standing down, under pressure from US and Swiss federal investigations of widespread corruption implicating senior Fifa officials.

“The real reason Fifa has become such a corrupt organisation is because the same person and his cronies have been running it for 40 years. Absolute power corrupts absolutely,” Chung said. “It has pained me to witness the spectacle of the Fifa president being booed by the fans at football stadiums everywhere. In 2011, when a European sports magazine conducted a survey asking: ‘What do you think about Fifa President Joseph Blatter?’ 95 per cent said ‘Blatter is ruining football.’”

On May 27, a United States federal investigation of corruption in world soccer was unleashed on Fifa. Though Blatter won re-election two days later, it took only four more days before he decided to step down.

Chung, a Fifa honorary vice-president, promised change if he wins the election on February 26.

“Under these circumstances, the Fifa president must be a crisis manager and a reformer. He must be more than just a head of the technical department,” the 63-year-old said at a Paris hotel.

“After decades of an ever-widening circle of corruption, Fifa needs a leader who can bring back common sense, transparency and accountability.”

Chung also appeared to hit out at early favourite to succeed Blatter Michel Platini.

He said: “It has suddenly become very fashionable to be Blatter’s enemy, this is too convenient.”