South Korea's Chung Mong-Joon officially launches bid for Fifa presidency

South Korean billionaire Chung Mong-Joon on Monday launched his formal campaign for the Fifapresidency with a frontal attack on the world football governing body's outgoing leader, Sepp Blatter. He also promised to do his utmost to rid the body of corruption within four years.

Chung Mong-Joon wants to leadworld football's governing body Fifa with a global vision Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji

Chung Mong-Joon, 63, who first expressed his interest in running for the Fifa top job at the end of last month, is the sixth son of Hyundai conglomerate founder Chung Ju-Yun.

He studied at the prestigious Seoul National University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University, and controls Hyundai Heavy Industries, one of the world's biggest engineering groups.

"Today Fifa is undergoing a profound crisis. Under these circumstances, the Fifa president must be a crisis manager and a reformer," he said during a press conference in Paris.

"The problem at Fifa is that those mired in corruption, the only thing they are interested in is hiding the corruption," he added.

"The real reason Fifa has become such a corrupt organisation is because the same person (Blatter) has been running it for 40 years. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Fifa is involved in a massive corruption scandal since seven of its officials were arrested in a Zurich hotel ahead of the world body's congress last May.

The seven are among 14 people facing US charges over more than 150 million dollars in bribes allegedly paid for television and marketing deals.

But Blatter has not been linked to any corruption case.

Chung now says that he will change Fifa within four years.

“That is my pledge to football fans in the world," he says. "After decades of ever-widening circles of corruption, Fifa needs a leader who can bring back common sense, transparency and accountability."

Other candidates include Uefa president Michel Platini, Brazil football legend Zico and Liberian Football Association chief Musa Bility.

Prince Ali bin Al Hussein, another former Fifa vice-president from Jordan, is also considering a run.