Exclusive: Prince Ali summons West Asian candidates to Jordan to explain themselves

prince ali

By Andrew Warshaw, Chief Correspondent
March 1 – FIFA vice president Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein (pictured) has summoned three of the candidates hoping to run Asian football to a summit in Jordan next week to make sure they have a proper agenda and are not just playing politics. 

Three days after the nominations close for Asian Football Confederation president – to be decided in May – Prince Ali, head of the West Asian Football Federation, will meet the candidates but insists he will not choose a preferred contender at this meeting.

Prince Ali wants to hear their respective cases and plans for taking over the running of Asian football until 2015.

The three candidates from West Asia are Bahrain’s Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa,  United Arab Emirates FA boss Yousuf Al Serkal and Saudi Arabia’s Hafez El Medlej.

Sources close to Prince Ali, FIFA’s youngest executive committee member who has been driving the reform process within the Asian football hierarchy, say he is concerned that the trio’s ambitions could split the Asian vote in Kuala Lumpur on May 2 and allow fellow FIFA exco member Worawi Makudi, who is also standing for election, to sweep into power, especially now that China’s Jilong Zhang, considered a reformist, has reportedly pulled out of the race despite being in charge of the AFC on an acting basis since the departure of bin Hammam.

Significantly, as well as the three candidates themselves, all 13 WAFF member nations have also been invited to Amman. But Prince Ali told InsideWorldFootball he simply wanted to hear the views of the respective candidates from his region rather than make a firm decision who to back or force any of them to pull out.

“I am going to listen to what they have to offer and approach it from that respect,” he said. “I want to know what these people have as agendas. It’s not about reputations. It’s about what they can offer for the next two years in terms of promoting football.”

In what appeared to be a veiled reference to how Asian football was run in the past Prince Ali added: “In terms of how things have been done previously, it is time now that we demand from any candidate to put forward a manifesto. I’d like to see from them what they have to offer.”

Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734883309labto1734883309ofdlr1734883309owedi1734883309sni@w1734883309ahsra1734883309w.wer1734883309dna1734883309


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