By Andrew Warshaw
October 13 – Asian football has chosen the first week of May next year for its eagerly anticipated presidential election, ending months of uncertainty about a firm date.
Alex Soosay, general secretary of the Asian Football Confederation, confirmed to Insideworldfootball that the election would take place during the AFC Congress and “almost certainly” in Kuala Lumpur, the AFC’s headquarters.
It is widely assumed that Bahrain’s Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, who won a landslide but highly controversial victory last year and whose two-year term ends in 2015, will stand for re-election but more intriguing will be who else decides to throw their names into the hat. Last year Yousuf Al-Serkal of the United Arab Emirates and Thailand’s Worawi Makudi were the vanquished opponents.
Last week Salman was forced to pull out of the Leaders in Sport summit in London due to unspecified government business. His place was taken by Soosay who warned that Asian football must step up to the plate or risk being left behind.
Four Asian countries – Japan, South Korea, Iran and Australia – qualified for last summer’s World Cup finals in Brazil but none of them won a game and they all went out in the group stage, the only confederation to suffer that fate.
“In the AFC we realise that without better competitions among member associations we will struggle to adapt to the increasing competitive nature of the global game,” Soosay told delegates.
“As such a new change is on the horizon for the AFC premier competitions. For the Asian Cup the number of teams will be increased from 16 to 24 for the 2019 edition.
“This will give more opportunity for the member associations to be part of Asia’s flagship competition. The gap is closing (between Asian countries) and we are optimistic that Asian football at that level will definitely shine.”
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