February 15 – FIFA presidential candidate Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa has issued fresh denials that he had anything to do with suppressing pro-democracy protests in his native Bahrain four years ago.
In an interview with the German newspaper Tages Anzieger, Salman also refuted the accusation that he used funds from the Bahrain football association, which he headed at the time, to win a FIFA executive committee seat.
He says he financed his campaigns for the FIFA executive committee seat in 2009 and presidency of the Asian Football confederation in 2013 out of his own pocket. Any other suggestion, he said, was simply “a smear campaign”.
Salman is also financing his campaign for the FIFA presidency himself.
Asked if Blatter, who has threatened to attend next week’s FIFA congress to elect his successor even if he still banned, should be allowed to do so, Salman replied: “I respect the FIFA rules. If they say banned officials cannot take part, then that’s the way it is. The rules are for everyone.”
Dodd wants more women voted on
Meanwhile Moya Dodd, the Asian confederation’s Vice-President and the first female member of FIFA’s 27-strong executive committee, said that addressing gender inequalities had to be given priority within the FIFA reform process.
“The only women who are at the top table at FIFA right now, including myself, got to that table because they were part of a quota mechanism,” said Dodd.
“And because I’m part of a quota, by definition I’m not someone who’s come through the normal channels. So by definition, if you were to make the effort to include women, you’re going to change the air in the room – because you get people who are not part of those established structures. You get people who by definition come in through another channel. And I think that kind of cultural shift is something that FIFA badly needs.”
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