SEOUL, South Korea: FIFA vice president Chung Mong-joon thinks the recent suspension of two executive committee members for alleged ethics violations is too harsh. “I personally believe the disciplinary measures on the two executive committee members are excessive,” Chung told reporters in Seoul Monday. The ethics panel for football's world governing body last week banned Nigeria's Amos Adamu from all football activity for three years for allegedly agreeing to take bribes from undercover reporters from Britain's The Sunday Times newspaper who posed as lobbyists trying to buy votes. It also suspended Reynald Temarii of Tahiti, the president of the Oceania confederation, for one year for breaching FIFA's loyalty and confidentiality rules when he was secretly filmed. Chung said it's obvious the two committee members' remarks were “not careful,” but he wondered if their behavior was serious enough to warrant such a punishment. He said many other executive members have also expressed regret over the suspension. Under FIFA's decision, the two members were suspended from voting for the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups on Dec. 2. South Korea is competing with Australia, Japan, Qatar and the United States for the right to host the 2022 edition. South Korea, which co-hosted the 2002 World Cup with Japan, became the first Asian country to reach the semifinals of the tournament that year. During this year's World Cup in South Africa, South Korea advanced to the round of 16 for the first time on foreign soil.
