By David Owen
October 29 – As the potential cast for next year’s FIFA Presidential election took shape this week, one of those with most influence over its outcome was preparing to welcome 1,000 heavy hitters from the Olympic world to the most powerful political town on the planet.
Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah is a relatively recently arrived member of FIFA’s Executive Committee. However, as President of both the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC), he has for some years been one of the Big Beasts of the global sports politics jungle.
This week’s ANOC General Assembly in Washington DC, including a glittering gala dinner and awards ceremony on Thursday night, will underline the extent of his influence.
Most particularly, the event – with Sheikh Ahmad in the chair – will symbolise the recent strengthening of relations between the Olympic Movement and the United States sporting establishment, after two decades when the relationship appeared frequently under strain.
Calendar clashes are an occupational hazard for energetic practitioners of what the French term “le cumul des mandats”, the stockpiling of different positions by a single individual. Nevertheless, Sheikh Ahmad might well have preferred it had the deadline for Presidential candidates to formalise their applications not come at the start of his big week in Washington. Having decided not to run for the FIFA Presidency himself, however, it is probably no more than a minor inconvenience.
Sheikh Ahmad’s support has been critical to the rise to the top of Asian football of Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, the Bahraini President of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), now widely, if tentatively, seen as new favourite to win the FIFA race.
Much may depend on whether an apparent alliance of convenience with Europe holds good right through to the date of the election on February 26. A candidate garnering the bulk of votes from both Asia and Europe would be within striking distance of victory.
Sheikh Ahmad’s enviable contacts might then prove helpful in collecting enough votes from other confederations to ensure a majority for the top Asian/European candidate.
The apparent failure of David Nakhid to make the starting-line leaves national associations in the Caribbean, North and Central American Confederation (CONCACAF) without a natural repository for their votes.
Sheikh Ahmad may have augmented his standing in this region considerably by the end of this week. Not only is there the event itself, the first ANOC General Assembly to be staged in the United States since 1994, the body is expected imminently to award the inaugural World Beach Games in 2017, including presumably beach soccer, to the Californian city of San Diego.
Sheikh Ahmad made plain his ambitions for this new project earlier this year, suggesting that while it would be satisfactory for ANOC if the World Beach Games were ranked “lower” than the Big Two (the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup), the organisation would not be satisfied if it were not higher than any international federation or continental games.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734887114labto1734887114ofdlr1734887114owedi1734887114sni@n1734887114ewo.d1734887114ivad1734887114