By Andrew Warshaw
May 22 – The Asian Football Confederation, rocked by allegations of a cover-up within its own ranks which is currently being investigated, appears to have cancelled a gathering of its national associations on the eve of next week’s FIFA congress in Zurich.
Traditionally, FIFA’s regional bodies meet on their own to discuss the Congress agenda shortly before the full 209-member session.
But according to a revised programme published by FIFA, the AFC has scrapped a meeting at a downtown Zurich hotel which was previously pencilled in but now has a line through it.
An email sent to the AFC for an explanation did not receive a response and while the meeting could have been called off for a variety of reasons, it may be that the AFC administration has decided not to step into the limelight given the internal investigation being carried out into reports that its general secretary Dato’ Alex Soosay asked for incriminatory evidence against him during the 2012 probe into the conduct of his one-time boss, Mohamed bin Hammam, to be removed.
Only Oceania among the remaining confederations have not scheduled a pre-congress meeting according to FIFA’s programme of events.
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