Seoul court grants injunction to halt election for nat'l football chief

Huh Jung-moo, a candidate in the election for Korea Football Association (KFA) president, speaks during a press conference at the KFA House in Seoul, Jan. 3. Yonhap A Seoul court on Tuesday granted an injunction to halt the election for president of the national football governing body the day before it was scheduled to take place, after a candidate sought to put the brakes on the proceedings over an alleged lack of fairness.

The Seoul Central District Court sided with Huh Jung-moo, the former men's national team head coach, who is in the running for the top job at the Korea Football Association (KFA). Huh had filed the injunction on Dec. 30, claiming the process leading up to the election had not been fair and transparent.



The election pitting Huh against incumbent President Chung Mong-gyu and a third candidate, former TV commentator Shin Moon-sun, had been scheduled for Wednesday. Immediately after the court announced its decision, the KFA said the election will be postponed until further notice. Huh held a press conference last Friday to detail his allegations against the KFA's election management committee.

He accused the KFA of trying to cover up something by refusing to identify members of the committee, and pointed out that all of them were named while Chung was still at the helm of the KFA. According to KFA rules, at least two-thirds of the eight-member election committee must be independent figures not affiliated with the football body, such as those from academia or media. Huh further alleged that most members of the electoral college had not been chosen in a transparent manner, and claimed that the KFA had deliberately tried to exclude a particular voting sector.

The court said if the election had gone ahead as scheduled under the current set of circumstances, there was "a distinct possibility" that it would have resulted in further dispute. "There have been grave breaches of procedural rules that substantially infringed upon the fairness of the election and thus impacted the election process," the court said. Concurring with Huh's claims, the court said it is impossible to confirm whether the election management committee was assembled in accordance with KFA rules because the KFA has not identified those members.

The KFA has previously countered that the committee members decided not to disclose themselves after a meeting. Chung, who has been under pressure to resign or at least not to run in the election, is pursuing his fourth term. The sports ministry has asked the KFA to at least suspend Chung from duty, after identifying a series of rules violations and mishaps in its monthslong investigation into the KFA's operations.

(Yonhap).