By Andrew Warshaw
January 9 – Key Asian football chiefs have staunchly re-iterated their support for FIFA president Sepp Blatter following young pretender Prince Ali’s announcement that he was making a bid for the FIFA throne.
No sooner had Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan, who was not even born when Blatter first joined FIFA, boldly announced at the start of this week that he was throwing his hat into ring for the end-of-May election than he found himself facing a series of pro-Blatter statements from within his own confederation.
As the Asian Football Confederation held its extraordinary congress in Melbourne, so Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, the most powerful official in Asian sports politics, said he would be advising his AFC colleagues to back Blatter.
The Kuwaiti, who heads the Olympic Council of Asia and is a close ally of AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, says he was surprised Prince Ali entered the electoral fray.
In newspaper interviews in Australia, he said: “I am with Blatter and I say that openly. I was even surprised that Prince Ali announced himself as a candidate. I respect Prince Ali as a brother but I wish Blatter to have one more term. Salman (is) also already committed. All of us have committed to Blatter before Prince Ali showed his interest.”
Alex Soosay, general secretary of the AFC, also made it clear where the majority of AFC members stood.
“We made a pledge in (our) congress in Brazil that the entire Asian football family was supporting the FIFA president,” he said. “As Asia we should also stay together and be united rather than divided.
Rhetoric may not completely reflect reality, however, and Prince Ali believes he can split the Asian vote.
Not, however, according to Salman whose says the AFC’s position has not changed.
“We are committed, all the member associations are committed to (Blatter) and from what I heard from them, today and the last few days, we will continue to commit to that promise,” he told reporters after Friday’s extraordinary congress.
“We all know the decision has been made – if we are committed we never change our word. I don’t want to give false hopes to anybody. I have to be clear on that.”
With Asia likely to be a key battleground, according to agency reports there was an air of general respect when Prince Ali, soon to lose his Asian Fifa vice-presidency, was one of the last to arrive at the congress.
But Sheikh Ahmad later raised eyebrows by claiming the 39-year-old Jordanian, who is very much his own man, had not consulted other AFC members about his decision to run. “He took this decision without calling anybody, or waiting for anybody to give his review or idea”.
“We decided in the general assembly (in Brazil) to vote for Blatter, so I think now Prince Ali has to consider that and he has to think about this matter a lot.”
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