February 10 – Kuwaiti government officials are preparing to tour the world in an effort to persuade FIFA to lift the ban it imposed on the Kuwait Football Association last October – for government interference.
At its meeting last September FIFA’s executive committee gave the Kuwaiti parliament until mid-October to repeal its sports law. Its failure to comply led to the suspension of all Kuwaiti club and representative teams from any international competition and participation in “any development programme, course or training from FIFA or the Asian Football Confederation”.
FIFA’s statement dated 16 October 2015 said: “The suspension will be lifted only when the KFA and its members (the clubs) are able to carry out their activities and obligations independently.”
Ahead of the extraordinary FIFA Congress on February 26, attempts are now under way to convince FIFA member associations to pressure its ex-co to overturn the ban. However, there will no doubt be raised eyebrows in FIFA circles that government officials have been chosen to lead a lobbying effort designed to argue that rules over government interference have not been breached.
Sources close to the situation in Kuwait say the Kuwaiti government is entirely funding the tour for “MPs and veteran athletes”. Certainly that is the impression given by the statement on Kuwait’s state news agency, KUNA.
It announced on Monday: “[The] Chairman of [the] National Assembly’s Youth and Sports Committee MP Abdullah Almaayouf announced a delegation would tour the world to rally support for efforts to end [the] International Olympic Committee’s suspension of Kuwait’s sports activities.
“The delegation would visit international sports associations and federations as well as sisterly and friendly countries,” Almaayouf told reporters following a meeting with the Director General of the Public Authority for Sports (PAS) Sheikh Ahmad Mansour Al-Sabah and Assistant Foreign Minister for Legal Affairs Ghanem Al-Ghanim.
“The lawmaker underlined the need to focus on the February 26 General Assembly of FIFA, the world football governing body, which will study its executive office’s decision to suspend Kuwait.”
Sheikh Ahmad Mansour Al-Sabah is not to be confused with Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, the FIFA executive-committee member and president of the Association of National Olympic Committees.
FIFA had no details to add to its statement of September 2015.
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