By Andrew Warshaw
April 26 – Hassan Al-Thawadi, the face of Qatar’s 2022 World Cup campaign who has kept an unusually low media profile as he seeks a place on the top table at FIFA, has finally unveiled his reasons for being elected to its executive committee next week.
Al Thawadi is taking on Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa in a head-to-head battle for Asia’s final FIFA executive committee place and a platform to influence world football’s key decision makers.
With the 2022 World Cup constantly in the news, Al Thawadi, secretary general of the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee, has the perfect opportunity to make sure the right messages are being transmitted and counter much of the negative publicity that has been cast in Qatar’s direction since FIFA decided in December 2010, to award the World Cup to the Gulf state.
But he stopped short of prioritising 2022 when outlining his manifesto at a news conference in Doha.
“My intention during this campaign was to speak to as many football associations as possible – regardless of size or perceived influence – and to listen to and understand the issues of most importance to them,” he said. ” The knowledge gained from these meetings has played an integral part in shaping the agenda that I have outlined today,” he said
Unlike much of the mud-slinging that has accompanied the separate race for Asian Football Confederation president, for which Salman is also running, Al Thawadi was careful not to criticise his sole opponent for the FIFA executive committee.
“Sheikh Salman is a dear friend and a very strong candidate. However, the feedback that I have received from federations during my campaign has been overwhelmingly positive. The strength of Asia lies in the diversity and dynamism of its nations. Working with the AFC President, the member associations, and colleagues on the FIFA Executive Committee, I will work to expand Asian representation at FIFA, create opportunities for education at all levels of the game, accelerate football development, and use football as an engine for economic growth across our continent.”
It is Al Thawadi’s belief that more effective governance and greater transparency are central to any strategy for increasing efficiency within associations and will eventually result in minimizing costs, maximizing national, continental and global opportunities, and optimizing resources and revenues.
His campaign rests on four key points:
• Enhanced representation for the AFC within FIFA with the aim of working toward fulfilling Asia’s latent potential to contribute to the growth of the football globally;
• A focus on educational initiatives throughout football – to provide players in the region with a future in the game beyond their playing careers, to create links between educational institutions and the national associations throughout Asia and to provide increased access to courses for administrators and officials – all with the aim of contributing to the sustainable growth of football within Asia;
• Optimising existing development projects with an emphasis on ensuring that existing initiatives and any developed in the future are carefully tailored to the specific needs and requirements of each member association;
• And to work toward creating the best environment for commercial and administrative success across the continent – maximising the existing commercial potential that Asian football has in abundance.
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