By Paul Nicholson in Manama, Bahrain
November 16 – If you want to know the truth go to the source and ask the questions, is the message from Asian Football Confederation president Shaikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa who is challenging for the FIFA presidency. In the first of two instalments, Salman speaks exclusively to Insideworldfootball on the accusations of human rights abuses and his candidacy for the FIFA presidency.
Interviewed in his home country of Bahrain, Salman was responding to a barrage of press reports alleging human rights abuses in 2011 when footballers were among over 150 athletes arrested for taking part in the pro-democracy demonstrations.
He has always denied any involvement in the government crackdown on athletes or that he was involved either in the identification or the alleged torture of players. He says that he had no power to change the course of events and that he had no government role empowering him to do so.
The allegations stem from a 2011 Bahraini news agency report that he was appointed to lead a fact-finding committee in relation to the uprising. Salman says this committee never met – under Bahraini law it could not.
“This is a committee that’s been asked to look (at events) within the sports law, not the civil law … but never met because it cannot look into responsibility beyond its restriction,” he said. “The local law forbids us from taking any action which is unrelated to sport. It’s as easy as that. And the Bahrain federation which I chaired for more than 10 years never took a single decision on unrelated football matters. Never.”
“I feel that I have been used as a tool for a purpose in which I have no involvement whatsoever. This is the sad part of it. When you read about yourself in the papers and people imagine you as this person, you feel gutted. I don’t know how to describe it but for people just repeating a lie again and again and they ask you to defend yourself it just makes no sense,” he said.
“How many times to do I have to repeat myself, but people are using it for other motives which I have nothing to do with. I have said that all along that we are a sport body, that we are in charge of sport and whatever these rules and regulations are those are the rules we are going to apply.”
Salman says it is very easy for people to judge from 3,000 miles away. “If people want the fact then come here and get the facts,” he said. “We are not trying to tell people to say something that they don’t want. We want to get this story out…
For me, I am in sport. Ask me any question about sport because this is my involvement.”
Salman is not alone in saying he had nothing to do with arrest of players who took part in the pro-democracy marches. Ala’a Hubail, a striker for the national team at the time and one of the examples used as so-called proof of Salman’s involvement by his accusors has given a number of interviews that refute the accusations (see http://www.insideworldfootball.com/fifa/18306-exclusive-bahraini-footballer-hubail-backs-salman-for-fifa-job).
The FIFA election challenge:
Salman was cleared by FIFA’s Ad-hoc electoral committee along with four rivals – Prince Ali, Gianni Infantino, Jerome Champagne and Tokyo Sexwale – to run in the election for FIFA president last. Currently he is one of the favourites to succeed, but he wouldn’t be running at all if UEFA president Michel Platini had not been banned by FIFA’s ethics committee over the irregular SFr2 million sanctioned by FIFA president Sepp Blatter in 2011.
“Things develop by the day, we didn’t expect that I would be here (running for the FIFA presidency) before the provisional ban on Michel and Sepp. We have to be ready for any scenario. If the provisional ban is lifted on Michel we have to sit together, myself and the stakeholders, and assess the situation and see what is the best way forward. Because you never know what is going to come up. Maybe after the ban is lifted Michel says after all this I am not interested in running. I don’t know.”
Rumours were that if Platini is eventually cleared to run Salman would stand down, but the situation is fluid and Salman – who describes his stakeholders as his AFC colleagues, the exco and unnamed federation and confederation colleagues – could well be encouraged to stay on.
” I said I am going because I have a good chance and the possibility of succeeding is a good one, otherwise I wouldn’t put my name in the hat,” he said.
Among his supporters is the seemingly increasingly powerful, in football terms, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah from Kuwait. Salman acknowledges his colleague but it is clear that Salman is his own man and he stresses that support is needed from a broad base.
“He is a supporter, amongst others as well, it’s not just him. There are key people and anyone who wants to succeed in the campaign has to have these people supporting them.
“We go back a few years since we have worked together in the game. As a personality it all depends on the network that you have, the people that you know. You can only influence people by convincing them that you are taking the right direction or (making) the right decisions…For him, yes he is ambitious, he has a role in the Olympic movement in football, as I am as well in football but football is far more than enough for me. I don’t know how he can cope (with this workload) but he loves to be involved in sport.”
When it comes to the FIFA vote count, which is now only three months away on February 26, Salman looks to be in a strong position. The magic number required to be installed as FIFA president is 105. Salman can count on the bulk of the AFC vote of 46 member federations (less any split Prince Ali can engineer if he stays in the campaign to the end), and a deal with the Europeans which looks possible – they have 53 votes.
Even if Platini is cleared to stand the former block support of the Europeans cannot be guaranteed now. It is hard to see UEFA’s alternative candidate Infantino commanding blanket support from UEFA either. If he threw his backing behind Salman then the Bahrani could conceivably garner 99 votes if he took the lot, with a more cautious estimate being 80.
Africa appears undecided in its wholehearted support of the South African candidate Tokyo Sexwale who may already have committed an election error by garnering the support of Danny Jordaan who is under investigation for fraud concerning the $10 million payment made to the Caribbean concerning the 2010 World Cup. This opens an opportunity for Salman.
Indeed, it seems unlikely CAF president Issa Hayatou would be comfortable in electing an African to a higher position in world football than he currently holds – Hayatou’s kidney transplant last week has not stopped him carrying out FIFA work in his role as FIFA’s interim president, suggesting he still has an appetite for the fray.
This leaves CONCACAF and the Caribbean in particular as potentially the kingmakers again. Even here a blanket vote for Sexwale cannot be guaranteed and it seems unlikely that the Caribbean will vote for a European candidate whose agenda would likely include a dilution of their representation at football’s top table. Again, an opportunity for Salman who will understand their concerns at keeping a voice as smaller federations potentially under threat from the big dog larger federations both regionally and globally.
There is plenty of horse trading to come but the portents at this stage seem to point to a Salman coronation.
The second instalment of the interview with Salman where he talks about how he would bring a new “openness” to FIFA if he became president, and the steps he has taken to stabilise and bring unity to the Asian Football Confederation, will be published tomorrow.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734883074labto1734883074ofdlr1734883074owedi1734883074sni@n1734883074osloh1734883074cin.l1734883074uap1734883074