By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
April 3 – Yousuf Al Serkal, one of the four contenders bidding to become the next Asian Football Confederation president, is leaving no stone unturned in his bid to snatch victory in next month’s election in Kuala Lumpur.
Maduki is a member of FIFA’s executive committee and is relying on south-east Asia support to win through but Al Serkal, possibly looking at potential second-round balloting, is happy to take his campaign into opposition territory which includes an awards night in Malaysia.
“I am honoured to have been invited to attend the AFF Awards Night and am looking forward to hearing first-hand about the excellent progress that is taking place across many levels of football in the region,” he said.
“I would like to pay tribute to the AFF for inviting me to these key events even though I am running for AFC presidency against a candidate from the region. I respect this open approach and willingness to listen to other candidates, and I am very much committed to this style of open governance and dialogue if I am successful in my bid to become AFC president. If I am elected president of the AFC, I am absolutely committed to giving more freedom to the regional federations to drive forward training and development programmes, given the excellent work already taking place.”
The AFF members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-L’Este, Vietnam. Australia is a co-opted member and Makudi is banking on all their support. But Al-Serkal is trying to gain any advantage he can ahead of what is expected to be a tight ballot and last month employed the London-based strategic communications advisors Vero to help run the international side of his media campaign.
Meanwhile, speculation is still rife that Saudi Arabia’s Hafez Al Medlej, considered the outsider, might not go the distance and instead lend his support to Al Serkal, head of the United Arab Emirates FA. The fourth contender is Bahrain’s Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa.
Al Serkal has declined to get drawn into Al Medlej’s position or how many candidates will ultimately be left in the race. He is, however, understood to have met FIFA president Sepp Blatter in an attempt to garner crucial support. Even though the FIFA president has no vote, Al Serkal said recently: “Blatter has a great influence in the AFC elections. I am optimistic I will have the support of the world football governing body.”
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