Nat'l football body takes sports ministry to court over demand for penalty on chief

The Korea Football Association (KFA) said Saturday it has taken the sports ministry to court over the latter's demand for disciplinary action on KFA chief Chung Mong-gyu, a move that allows the incumbent leader to remain eligible in the upcoming president election.

The KFA said it filed an administrative suit against the sports ministry at the Seoul Central District Court on Jan. 21, seeking to nullify the ministry's demand to at least suspend Chung.

At the end of its monthslong probe into the KFA in November, the ministry had sought disciplinary measures on Chung and other senior KFA executives over a series of irregularities, including the controversial hiring of Hong Myung-bo as the new men's national team head coach in July.

The KFA appealed the ruling, but the ministry dismissed it on Jan. 2. The KFA's subcommittee on fair play was required to act on the ministry's demand by this coming Monday.

The subcommittee met two days after the KFA filed the suit and decided to withhold the decision on Chung until after the Seoul court's ruling.

"We have about 100 people working at the KFA, and the sports ministry wanted penalties on almost 20 employees and executives. It was difficult for us to accept that," a KFA official said. "We decided to file the suit to ensure our independence and autonomy, as required by FIFA."

If Chung had been suspended, as per the ministry's demand, this month, he would have been ruled ineligible for the election and thus denied a chance to win his fourth term in charge.

Chung is up against Huh Jung-moo, former head coach of the Korean men's national team, and Shin Moon-sun, former player and television analyst who now teaches sports data analysis at Myongji University.

The election was set to take place on Jan. 8 but was postponed on the eve of that when the Seoul Central District Court granted an injunction filed by Huh to stop the proceedings. Huh had raised issues with the composition of the KFA's election management committee and claimed the KFA deliberately tried to exclude a certain group of voters from the electoral college.

On Jan. 9, the KFA announced the election will be held on Jan. 23, but both Huh and Shin said they had never agreed to the new schedule. The election was then postponed indefinitely when all eight members of the election management committee resigned on Jan. 10.

The KFA is trying to put together a new election committee and resume preparing for the election in early February.

Huh and Shin both accused the KFA of trying to protect Chung with its legal action. The two candidates had previously urged the KFA's fair play subcommittee to discipline Chung before the early February deadline. (Yonhap)