By Andrew Warshaw
November 28 – The bitter political in-fighting at the heart of Asian football comes to a head tomorrow in a make-or-break showdown designed to heal the rifts and bring about desperately needed stability.
insideworldfootball has learned that the entrenched divisions are so deep amid the continuing fallout over the Mohammed Bin Hammam (pictured top) scandal that a proposed anti-corruption body is in danger of being blocked because of rampant self-interest and disagreements over its composition.
Ever since Bin Hammam, former Asian Football Confederation (AFC) President and once the most powerful man in Asian football, was suspended – first in the wake of last year’s cash-for-votes scandal, then for alleged misuse of AFC funds – pro and anti-Bin Hammam factions have been lining up on opposite sides, engaging in a damaging and at times inflammable war of words.
As a result of this and growing concern about the AFC becoming totally dysfunctional, a proposal by the AFC administration was sent by correspondence to the organisation’s top brass last month calling for the creation of an ethics Task Force – composed of four members – to investigate all future allegations of corruption and speed up the reform process.
insideworldfootball has learned that the chairperson proposed for the Task Force is AFC vice-president Moya Dodd of Australia, regarded as a highly gifted and liberal-thinking lawyer.
The deputy put forward is Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, head of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF).
Yet it is understood that Makhdoom (pictured above) – a Government Minister who has been investigated for alleged corruption in his own country – is unwilling to take part unless he is named as chairman of the clean-up body, a move reformers claim would seriously undermine the AFC’s drive for credibility and transparency.
Sources have told insideworldfootball that those seeking to maintain the status quo – led in part by the increasingly vocal Vernon Manilal Fernando of Sri Lanka – are refusing to back the Task Force because its other two proposed members are both from the same country, Guam, even though they were recommended purely on their credentials and there is nothing in the AFC statutes to prevent this.
As a result of all the squabbling, no agreement was reached on the Task Force by the end of last month – with the whole issue now going before tomorrow’s AFC Executive Committee meeting for approval.
“The back and forth exchanges are totally emblematic of the divisions and show that there are those who want to shut down what’s been happening,” said one source close to the AFC hierarchy.
“There is a real danger that the Task Force won’t happen which would be a disaster.
“More so than ever, the pro-Bin Hammam body are trying to manipulate the judicial process.”
Also on the Executive Committee agenda in Kuala Lumpur is a proposal to replace Bin Hammam, who has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing claiming there is a conspiracy against him, as AFC President.
Although technically Bin Hammam still holds the position until 2015, since his demise the organisation has been run by Zhang Jilong of China but only on an interim basis.
With Bin Hammam supporters pushing for a symbolic return to power by the 63-year-old Qatari and the reformist lobby categorically opposed to any suggestion of a comeback, it promises to be a heated meeting.
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