By Paul Nicholson
November 2 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has officially opened nominations for the positions of AFC President, five FIFA Vice Presidents and six FIFA Council members. Elections will be held at the AFC Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on April 6, 2019.
Under new rules passed at the AFC’S Congress earlier this week, candidates for AFC President must be nominated by three Member Associations, but do not have to be nominated by their own Member Association.
That rule change was voted through by 42 votes to 4 against. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Korea and Uzbekistan voted against, a move that was widely interpreted as an attempt to get the AFC’s Bahraini president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa out of the election by exerting political pressure on his home nation not to nominate on him.
The Saudis want control of the AFC – a motivation not unlike or unlinked to their regional desire to control Qatar – and have two proposed candidates. They are Adel Ezzat, who was briefly head of the Saudi FA and leads the rapidly diminishing SWAFF regional group of federation (seven nations resigned their membership this week), and former player Sami Al-Jaber. The Saudis can only nominate one candidate.
The positions for which the elections will be held for the 2019 – 2023 term are:
- AFC President and FIFA Vice President;
- Five AFC Vice Presidents;
- Six FIFA Council Members, one of whom shall also be an AFC Female Executive Committee Member;
- A total of five AFC Female Executive Committee Members, one of whom shall also be a FIFA Council member; and
- A further nine AFC Executive Committee members.
Rules are that candidates for election to the AFC Executive Committee shall be proposed by their Member Association, including candidates for positions on the FIFA Council. Member Associations can only propose one candidate for each position in the AFC Executive Committee and no Member Association can be represented by more than one member in the AFC Executive Committee.
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