By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
April 26 – The three West Asian contenders fighting to become the next head of Asian football have failed to reach a consensus on putting forward one sole candidate for next week’s presidential election but are set to hold further private talks in the build-up to the vote.
All three West Asian hopefuls – along with member nations of the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) – were summoned to Jordan at the start of last month to meet Asia’s FIFA vice-president Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein (pictured), who is keen to ensure unity as Asian football moves into a new era.
When Bahrain’s Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, who was on the lobbying trail, snubbed the meeting, no agreement was reached on a consensus but it was expected that a follow-up Jordan summit would take place.
Indeed, an official WAFF statement immediately afterwards said that “full agreement” had been reached “to continue discussions next month with the objective of seeking consensus”.
No second gathering ever took place, however, and the three West Asian contenders – the others are United Arab Emirates football chief Yousuf Al Serkal and Saudi Arabia’s Hafez Ibrahim Al Medlej – are now heading to Kuala Lumpur to take on Thailand’s Worawi Makudi in next Friday’s highly politicised election.
The AFC has been without a permanent president since Mohamed bin Hammam was banned for life. With three of the four candidates to replace him coming from the Arabian Gulf, there are continuing fears they will take votes off each other which partially prompted Prince Ali to summon them to Amman in the first place. One WAFF insider told InsideWorldFootball: “The (second) meeting has not happened as candidates have been busy campaigning.”
Behind closed doors, further discussions are due to take place in Kuala Lumpur itself and although Al Medlej is still widely expected to ultimately drop out of the race in the final few days before the vote, that would still leave two contenders from the region, a rejection of Prince Ali’s ideal preference to end up with one candidate by the time of the May 2 ballot that will shape the future of Asian football for the next two years.
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