December 11 – Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al-Sabah, arguably the most powerful official in Asian sport and a recently elected member of FIFA’s top brass, has vowed to fight a six-month jail term imposed in his native Kuwait for allegedly insulting the judiciary.
Sheikh Ahmad was sentenced by a lower court on Thursday, according to local media, in a move that follows weeks of turmoil during which both FIFA and the International Olympic Committee suspended Kuwait for government interference.
Bizarrely, the sentence imposed was as a result of a television interview three years ago, Al-Qabas newspaper reported. Sheikh Ahmad said he will appeal against the jail term and a 1,000 dinar (S$4,650) fine.
A key player in football’s geopolitics now that he has joined FIFA’s executive committee, Sheikh Ahmad has been strongly courted by UEFA whose general secretary Gianni Infantino is in the presidential race. However, he has said he will be supporting Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa in the February 26 election.
“This is a personal attack and unfortunately is symptomatic of the current relationship between Kuwait and the sports movement,” the sheikh, head of the Olympic Council of Asia, said in a statement released by that body. “Under Kuwait’s Democratic Constitution, it is my right to express my opinion freely, and that is all that I have done.”
“I have fought against all forms of corruption and promoted freedom of speech all my life – when I was in the military, when I was in the government and now within the sports movement.
“I will continue to protect the value of democracy, freedom of right of speech and the autonomy of the sports.”
According to Al-Qabas, Sheikh Ahmad was convicted of “casting doubt on the integrity of the judiciary, insulting the public prosecution and instigating against public order”.
But an Olympic Council of Asia statement said the 55-year-old royal, who has also been a member of the Francois Carrard’s FIFA Reform body, had been “personally targeted for criticisms he made on the general situation in Kuwait” and that new domestic laws “threatened the autonomy of sport in Kuwait”.
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