A five-year ban on Mong Joon Chung, a former candidate to replace Sepp Blatter as President of FIFA, has been reduced to 15 months from five years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, it has been announced today.

It means the ban therefore expired as of January 7.

CAS also canceled a fine of CHF50,000 ($53,000).

Chung had been found guilty in 2015 of breaking FIFA's code of conduct during South Korea's bid for the 2022 World Cup, which were awarded to Qatar.

The 66-year-old multi-billionaire originally received a six-year ban by FIFA's Ethics Committee, later reduced the suspension to five years and halved the fine to CHF50,000.

Chung, a former vice-president of FIFA, appealed that decision to CAS in April 2017.

"The CAS Panel confirmed the violation by Mr Chung of some rules of the FIFA Code of ethics but to a far lesser degree than found by the FIFA instances," CAS said in a statement published today. 

Chung had been accused of breaking the code of conduct by proposing to launch a Global Football Fund (GFF) which would have seen South Korea aim to raise $777 million (£513 million/€694 million) from 2011 to build new football infrastructure and renovate existing facilities had they won the right to stage the tournament in 2022.

He claimed GFF was in line with the football development projects that FIFA asked every bidding country to propose as part of their bid requirement.

Chung had planned to run for FIFA President before the ban. 

Since then he regularly criticised world football's governing body since they took the decision to ban him.

Chung has accused FIFA's Ethics Committee of "malicious behaviour". 

"The past four years were a painful period in which my honour was violated," Chung told South Korean news agency Yonahp. 

"I will do my part in helping FIFA regain the love and respect of football fans around the world."

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