By Andrew Warshaw
January 13 – In a move that could have potential repercussions in the forthcoming FIFA presidential election, Kuwait’s government has announced it is suing a number of top sports executives, among them FIFA executive committee member Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al-Sabah, accusing them of causing the suspension of the Gulf state from global sporting competition.
The lawsuit, filed by the government’s legal department, named Sheikh Ahmad, arguably the most powerful figure in Asian sport, and a number of other prominent officials including his brother, Kuwait Olympic Committee chief Sheikh Talal Fahad Al-Sabah.
It follows the decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Fifa to suspend Kuwait because of alleged government interference in sport.
Kuwaiti authorities are demanding temporary damages of $16,500 which if granted will allow authorities to seek greater damages of $1.3 billion, according to local media reports, a figure the government says it has spent on sport in the past five years.
Sheikh Ahmad, as well as being on FIFA’s exco, is President of the Olympic Council of Asia, based in Kuwait, while Sheikh Talal also runs the Kuwaiti Football Association.
If the suspension remains, it will prevent Kuwait being able to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.
Sheikh Ahmad is already appealing a six-month jail term for allegedly insulting the judiciary though bizarrely, the sentence imposed was reportedly as a result of a television interview three years ago.
A key player in football’s geopolitics now that he has joined FIFA’s exco, Sheikh Ahmad wields huge influence among Asia’s 46 voting members. He has been strongly courted by Europe’s presidential candidate, UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino, but has made it clear he will be supporting Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa in the February 26 election.
At the time the six-month sentence was imposed, an Olympic Council of Asia statement said the 55-year-old royal, who was a member of Francois Carrard’s FIFA Reform body, had been “personally targeted for criticisms he made on the general situation in Kuwait” and that new domestic laws “threatened the autonomy of sport in Kuwait”.
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