By John Duerden in Kuala Lumpur
May 1 – Outsider Hafiz Al Medlej of Saudi Arabia as expected quit the race to become the next president of the Asian Football Confederation today, just hours after exclusively revealing to InsideWorldFootball that he was on the verge of pulling out of the running.
A brief AFC statement said merely that Al Medlej had withdrawn, leaving the three other candidates to fight it out.
Last month, Al Medlej told this website that he would step down if the two frontrunners Yousuf Al Serkal of United Arab Emirates and Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa of Bahrain did not.
Al Medlej had continually hinted that political forces from the gulf could step in and force Al Serkal and Salman out. And with less than 24 hours remaining before Thursday’s election at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, the lack of news from Al Medlej, who stayed up into the early hours of the morning watching UEFA Champions League action, was starting to make Al-Serkal and Salman’s camps a little nervous.
Now they will be able to breathe a little easier.
“We gave the other candidates as much time as we could to change their minds but now we know that nothing is going to happen. I tried to be a candidate to help a divided west Asia but now it is time to end,” Al Medlej told InsideWorldFootball a few hours before making his decision public.
Much intrigue now focuses on the ramifications of all the political manoeuvring and who Al Medlej supports when the vote takes place Thursday morning local time.
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