By Andrew Warshaw
July 26 – FIFA vice-president Worawi Makudi, embroiled in an internal dispute in his native Thailand, was forced to miss last week’s Asian Football Confederation summit in Bahrain citing unexplained other commitments, Insideworldfootball has learned.
Makudi, who lost out in the race to become the new AFC president earlier this year, apparently wrote a letter saying he would be unable to attend the AFC executive committee meeting attended by the rest of the confederation’s top brass.
“It’s extremely rare for him not to show up to an exco,” said one high-ranking source. “He said he had important commitments in his own country.”
Makudi’s no-show has served only to intensify the speculation over his future as head of Thai football amid the continuing impasse concerning the implementation of contentious new reforms.
Thailand recently avoided being thrown out of world football when a tiny fourth-tier club, Pattaya, agreed to withdrew a lawsuit that threatened to stop the Thai FA (FAT) from holding elections. Pattaya had previously won a court injunction blocking FIFA-backed reforms changing Thai federation statutes and slashing the number of voting clubs in FAT elections by more than half – a strategy that was said by critics to be a deliberate electioneering ploy by Makudi to retain his seat amid growing unpopularity. Makudi, no stranger to controversy whose two-year term officially ended on June 16, insists the reforms must be implemented before officials can go to the polls. He is supported by FIFA but 108 of the 179 FAT members disagree and have signed a petition demanding a fresh ballot takes place first.
“One has to assume that his absence in Bahrain was linked to what’s going on back home,” said the afore-mentioned source.
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