FIFA presidential candidate Chung Mong-joon has accused the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) of sending "unsolicited letters" to its member nations, urging them to back current UEFA president Michel Platini in next year's election.
Chung claims the letters asked member nations to sign and pledge their support for the Frenchman - a measure he claims is in breach of FIFA election guidelines.
"Sheikh Salman, president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), has publicly supported Michel Platini, president of the UEFA," Chung said in a widely reported statement.
"We have learned that the AFC has sent unsolicited letters to almost every AFC member association. Most of the AFC member countries including China, Japan, Mongolia, India, and Singapore received this letter. South Korea and Jordan, however, did not."
Millionaire businessman Chung of South Korea - who also claims a similiar letter was distributed among African nations - announced his candidacy last month, while Jordan's Prince Ali bin Hussein is also expected to be in the running.
"Given that the confederations exercise tremendous influence over its member associations in organising football tournaments and through administrative oversight, it is clear that the fairness of the FIFA presidential election has been seriously compromised," he added.
"According to FIFA Statutes, only the member associations possess the right to propose candidates for the office of FIFA president, and each member should make its decision independently and with no influence from third parties."
Chung has informed the FIFA Ad-hoc Electoral Committee and FIFA Ethics Committee about the incident and requested that the former "promptly institute remedies sufficient to address the prejudice and harm already sustained by other potential candidates."