The election clock for the 55th president of the Korea Football Association stopped a day before the election. It was unprecedented. The entire soccer community is in chaos. Everything is in a state of zero visibility. Chung Mong-kyu's bid for a fourth term and Huh Jung-moo's bid to maintain his qualifications were also in the fog.

The election for president of the Korea Football Association, which was scheduled to take place on Friday, has been postponed indefinitely. The civil agreement department 50 at the Seoul Central District Court cited Huh Jung-moo's request for a provisional injunction against the association's presidential election ban.

The KFA immediately said, "The election date will be temporarily postponed. We will announce the election date as soon as the schedule is established." The KFA is determined to find improvement by closely examining the content and purpose of the court's decision at the election management committee. However, it will take a considerable amount of time to resolve the unfairness and procedural illegality that the court pointed out.

The court judged that the ongoing presidential election of the Korea Football Association "has a serious procedural violation that will be acknowledged to have significantly violated the fairness of the election and thereby affected the election process."

It was pointed out that the majority of the electors were formed through a lottery process where transparency and fairness were not confirmed. The electors will be composed of a total of 34 delegates, including 17 presidents of the city and provincial associations, 12 representatives of the K League 1, and five presidents of the National Federation, and 160 athletes, leaders, and referees selected by lottery.
However, the court judges that the election management committee did not take measures to ensure transparency by "involving a representative of a prospective candidate or a neutral third party who wishes to run," and that "it is not confirmed whether the actual electors' draw was conducted objectively and transparently." He also pointed out, "Even if the members participated, it is difficult to say that it is enough to guarantee fairness and transparency in the electors' draw." As the court judged that the current electors were formed through opaque procedures, it seems inevitable to proceed with the electors' draw again.

Above all, the court took issue with the way the election management committee received consent to collect personal information from those drawn as electors, and the soccer community believes that it will take a short time to supplement this.

The election management regulations for the president of the Korea Football Association have a clause that says, "Those who do not submit consent forms or do not consent to the collection, use, and provision of personal information shall be excluded from the electors' draw." If this is applied, the election management committee must conduct a lottery for those who have obtained prior consent and agreed to collect personal information from the candidates before the electors' draw. However, 150,000 people are required to obtain consent for collecting personal information. The election management committee, which initially judged such a process to be physically impossible, took the "draw first, consent after consent" method, which the court took as a problem.

In addition, the court added that it was not possible to confirm whether the committee was organized in accordance with the articles of association and election management regulations because it did not disclose who was appointed as a member of the election management and operation committee. It accepted Huh's claim that outside members, including academics, media and legal circles, who are not related to the soccer association by regulations, should be at least two-thirds of all election management committee members. 토토사이트

Regarding the decrease in the number of electors from 194 to 173, the court also said, "With three candidates running as candidates, the number of 21 votes excluded from the electors is likely to affect the decision of candidates to go to the runoff election if there is no majority vote in the first round." As a result, it is highly likely that a subsequent dispute will be triggered over the effectiveness of the election.

With the election temporarily suspended, dark cloud cast over current chairman Chung Mong-gyu's bid for a fourth term. On the back of the public support from the Korea Football Association on the 6th, Chung announced his intention to donate 5 billion won for the successful completion of the Cheonan Football Center on the 7th, a day before the election, showing strong confidence in his bid for the fourth term. However, after that, the court's decision to cite the candidate was made, and the election was in a position to start from the ground up. Chung's side has yet to issue an official position on the suspension of the election.

Another variable is whether Huh Jung-moo maintains his qualifications. The articles of association of the Korea Football Association stipulate that candidates for presidential election must be under 70 years old on election day. Heo's birthday is January 13, 1955, according to his resident registration. The election must be held until the 12th to maintain Heo's eligibility for election, but time is running out. Huh, however, said he was aware of the possibility of being disadvantaged by the age limit when the court decided to cite him, but he made a decision to reform the Korea Football Association.

As a result, if Heo loses his eligibility, he can be unified with a visiting professor at Shinmun and Myongji University. Shin's side says that if Heo proposes a unification centered on Shin, it will positively consider it. The term of the next chairman will begin on May 22. Less than 15 days are left. Attention is focusing on the soccer community to see if the suspended election clock for the chairman can go back.