By David Owen
March 17 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is considering electoral reforms that would see the next elected President secure an automatic place on FIFA’s Executive Committee.
At present, FIFA ExCo seats are allotted via a separate poll. This is what happened last May when Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa beat Yousuf Al Serkal and Worawi Makudi for the AFC Presidency, and Qatar’s Hassan Al-Thawadi for a place on FIFA’s ExCo.
With another Presidential election due to take place next year, Shaikh Salman has told Insideworldfootball that he expects the current system to be changed. The Shaikh said that he thought whoever won the 2015 Presidential election “automatically will be an ExCo member if not a FIFA Vice President as well.
“This is something that we are looking into.”
Given the scale of his crushing victory in Kuala Lumpur last May, it seems implausible that the winner of next year’s election will be anyone other than Shaikh Salman himself. Under present arrangements, Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan is the AFC’s FIFA Vice President, while Shaikh Salman sits on the ExCo along with Prince Ali, Makudi and China’s Zhang Jilong.
The AFC covers a vast, disparate and highly populous area, so it is perhaps not surprising that recent elections have been particularly divisive. It is not surprising either in such circumstances that Shaikh Salman spoke of a need for stability. “As you are aware, Asia had its ups and downs lately,” he said. “Asia went through a lot. That is why my focus is purely on Asia now.”
Questioned on the state of relations with Al-Thawadi, a key figure given Qatar’s role as host of the 2022 World Cup, Shaikh Salman said relations with all his electoral rivals were fine. “My relations with everybody are OK,” he said, stressing that he never let election issues “interfere in my line of work or even in the friendship that we had.
“It is the right of anybody to choose if they want to run.”
On plans for an AFC Ethics Committee, Shaikh Salman indicated that he expected to see it up and running in 2014. “We have already chosen its members,” he said. “These things take time. My expectation is hopefully to have it running by this year.”
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