By Andrew Warshaw
April 24 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC), poised for a series of crucial election ballots, has scrapped its executive committee meeting scheduled for the eve of its 47-member Congress in Bahrain on April 30.
Exco members have been sent brief correspondence, seen by Insideworldfootball, saying the session has been cancelled due to the “tight preparation schedule” ahead of the full congress 24 hours later.
Traditionally FIFA’s six confederations brief their top brass in advance of their individual congresses and discuss any changes or additions to the agenda.
But the AFC is breaking with tradition ahead of one of its most eagerly awaited summits of recent years, the last major regional gathering of federations before the FIFA presidential election on May 29.
Whilst there is no direct evidence of behind-the-scenes manoeuvring in calling off the exco meeting, eyebrows have already been raised at the statute-changing plans to fast-track Asian sports supremo Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah’s bid to add a senior footballing role to his increasingly influential portfolio.
The Kuwaiti powerbroker, honorary president of the Kuwaiti FA, is head of the Association of National Committees (ANOC) and the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and has been nominated by his country for one of the three FIFA executive committee positions up for grabs in Bahrain.
But given Sheikh Ahmad only wants a two-year role and not four – some say so he can be re-elected for another four in 2017 – member federations are to be asked to split the vote, change the statutes and act on that change on the very day of the elections themselves, a rare if not unprecedented constitutional situation.
The relevant amendment to hold two separate ballots, effectively to make sure Sheikh Ahmad doesn’t miss out (one for two four-year posts and the other for one two-year slot) has been proposed by Guam and seconded by eight other federations. This vote is overshadowing AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa’s own re-election unopposed.
Uppermost in many peoples’ minds will be how Sheikh Salman came to power with Sheikh Ahmad’s support. This will not be lost on delegates as Asian football gears up for what looks like a strengthening of the powerful alliance between the region’s two most influential officials. Sheikh Ahmad is one of seven candidates vying for three Asian Fifa exco seats when Sheikh Salman vacates his “ordinary” seat to assume the FIFA vice presidency for Asia on a fresh four-year mandate. The other two are currently held by Worawi Makudi of Thailand and Zhang Jilong of China.
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