Acting president David Chung has been elected to succeed the banned Reynald Temarii as head of the Oceania Football Confederation and he's immediately pledged his region's support for the re-election of FIFA President Sepp Blatter.
Papua New Guinea's Chung was elected unopposed to the position at the OFC's congress in Pago Pago, American Samoa after New Zealanders Frank van Hattum and Fred de Jong withdrew their candidacies before the vote.
Malaysian-born Chung, who now becomes a FIFA vice president, then pledged Oceania's support when the 74-year-old Blatter, who was present at the meeting, bids for his fourth term as FIFA president later this year.
Chung had assumed the role in an acting capacity after Temarii was implicated in a votes-for-cash scandal ahead of the decision for hosting rights of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups and suspended for 12 months by world governing body FIFA.
Tahiti's Temarii has appealed the decision after he was found guilty by FIFA's ethics committee in November of breaching ethics guidelines, banned for one year and fined.
46-year-old Chung, who will hold the position until 2014, says he intends to ensure the region remains independent and is not swallowed up by the larger Asian confederation.
