By John Duerden in Kuala Lumpur
April 29 – It is somewhat ironic for an election in which transparency and unity are the major issues that so much of the lobbying and campaigning has been played out almost entirely behind closed doors amid ever increasing divisions. But this is football politics, Asian style.
Even given the recent history of the Asian Football Confederation however, these are unusual times. The Extraordinary Congress in Kuala Lumpur that will elect a new president on May 2 may not quite herald a bright new dawn for the troubled organisation but it is a step along the path from beneath the long shadow long cast by Mohamed Bin Hammam, president from 2002 to his initial suspension in May 2011.
The two years since the Qatari left his post amid accusations of vote-buying and financial irregularities has seen a directionless confederation, more divided than ever, beset by numerous corruption scandals, mismanagement and shrouded by suspicion. But on Thursday afternoon that will all be forgotten, temporarily at least, when the new president sits down to face the press at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the Malaysian capital.
While there are other issues to be settled, it is all about the candidate who can collect the necessary majority of 24 votes from the AFC’s 46 full member associations. Currently, there are four contenders, though even at this late stage that number could change. Three are from the west of the continent, with south-east Asia the other region with a horse in the race.
East Asia was expected to put forward Zhang Jilong, the acting president for the last two years, but just before the March 3 deadline for nominations, the Chinese official shocked his supporters in the region by announcing that he was not going to run. Sources close to Zhang, never a dynamic figure in Asian football politics, claim that a major factor in his decision was pressure from the Chinese Olympic Association which was in turn pressured by the powerful Olympic Council of Asia. The perceived influence of the OCA and its Kuwaiti chief Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah has been a regular feature of the campaign and is sure to be highlighted again in the build-up to Thursday’s ballot.
Sheikh Ahmad’s publicly-stated preference is Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, the current favourite. The busy Bahraini was racking up the air miles campaigning while the others were still announcing their plans to run.
Salman has experience. He ran Bin Hammam very close in a bitter election for a seat on FIFA’s Executive Committee in 2009 and won respect around Asia for the dignified way in which he accepted a very narrow defeat. He has also maintained the continental-wide network that helped him four years ago. Of all the candidates, Salman has the best ability to win support outside his own region.
His garden is by no means completely rosy, however. To the annoyance of Salman, a member of the Bahrain ruling royal family and head of the country’s FA, he has not been able to shake off questions about the arrest and torture of football players in Manama in February 2011 for participating in the pro-democracy demonstrations. Salman maintains it is a political and not a football matter.
Yousuf al-Serkal is the biggest barrier between Salman and the seat of power – which will be up for grabs once again in 2015, officially the end of bin Hammam’s tenure. The head of the United Arab Emirates FA is also a vice-president of the AFC and has over 20 years of service.
Al-Serkal admits that he was, and still is, close to Bin Hammam, but has never been accused of any financial wrongdoing himself. His campaign started slowly but has been gathering momentum in recent weeks, helped by an early April media drive in Dubai where he admitted to Inside World Football that Salman was ahead in East Asia. If so, Al-Serkal’s claim to have the support of the majority of West Asia needs to be accurate. The real test will be how he has done in South and South-East Asia, regions he has been focusing on in the run-up to the vote.
Hafiz Al Medlej of Saudi Arabia has hardly been campaigning at all. The talkative technocrat told Inside World Football recently that he will only fight the election if the other two West Asian candidates withdraw for the sake of regional unity. That prospect, never likely, looks even more slim and if the chairman of the AFC’s Marketing Committee is true to his word, he will withdraw himself in the knowledge that he has at least raised what was almost a non-existent profile ahead of a possible challenge in 2015.
That leaves Worawi Makudi, the head of Thailand’s FA and member of FIFA’s Executive Committee who told Inside World Football this week that he has the support to win. After being accused, though subsequently cleared, of corruption more than once in recent years, Worawi is a controversial figure and is relying on his old boy network that reaches various Asian capitals. While that will not be enough, it does not mean that the process is a waste of time for the 61 year-old who is seeking to leverage his current position as the only non West Asian candidate to his future advantage. Interestingly, Worawi was the only candidate who had still not arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Monday amid rumours that he had invited certain delegations to Bangkok on the way to Malaysia for some last-minute schmoozing.
While anything even approaching unity in a continent such as Asia with massive cultural, linguistic, social and historical differences is impossible, both Salman and al-Serkal have vowed to try and smooth the rougher edges of the cracks that have weakened the foundation of the confederation, not helped by the infighting caused by fall-out from the Bin Hammam affair.
None of the four are genuine reformers though Al-Serkal’s plans to open up the AFC would be far-reaching if they were implemented and Salman has also promised to make the body much more accountable. Reports of financial wrongdoing in recent years have been so damaging to the image of the AFC that the organisation wrote to member associations, as revealed exclusively by Inside World Football, warning them against accepting bribes.
Then there is the other, in one sense equally far-reaching, separate vote in which Salman is also running against Hassan al-Thawadi for a seat on FIFA’s Executive Committee. Al-Thawadi was the CEO of Qatar’s 2022 World Cup bid and is the General Secretary of the country’s Supreme Organising Committee. It is widely assumed that he seeks entrance to the powerful committee in order to protect his country’s 2022 prize though he denies such suggestions. The young Qatari has campaigned extensively around Asia, even to some smaller nations that are not normally included on such itineraries. Al-Thawadi has greatly increased his profile and contacts around the continent.
Salman’s camp is slightly concerned about their candidate being involved in both elections, inviting the possibility that supporters could use one vote to support the Bahraini and another to support a rival. It is impossible to say what effect, if any, being involved in two ballots will have on Salman’s presidential hopes.
In other positions, Australia’s Moya Dodd is the sole name on the voting slip for the confederation’s female vice-president but will fight it out with North Korea’s Han Un-gyong and Susan Shalabi Molano of Palestine for the two seats on the AFC’s Executive Committee.
If May 2 is the ‘Extraordinary Congress’ the following day is the Ordinary Congress and will “carry out the statutory business, including the presentation of Standing Committees and the General Secretary’s reports and amendments to the Statutes.” In other words, pretty turgid stuff. By then, most of the media attention will have disappeared leaving the new President to start what is going to be a massive job.
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