Election day dawns for Asian football

Four candidates eye AFC presidency as polls take place tomorrow.

SINGAPORE: The Asian Football Confederation heads to the polls tomorrow to finally elect a new leader, but with question marks over the candidates and only a two-year term for the winner, hopes for reform at the crisis-hit body may have to be put on hold.

The United Arab Emirates football chief Yousuf al Serkal, Saudi Arabian Hafez al Medlej, Thailand’s Worawi Makudi and Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa of Bahrain are running to succeed disgraced former president Mohamed bin Hammam, banned from football for life by Fifa for bribery in 2011.

The AFC has been in limbo ever since with lengthy appeals by the Qatari proving unsuccessful, while Zhang Jilong’s interim leadership has been beset by numerous match-fixing and graft scandals among member associations.



Sheikh Salman looks to be favourite to claim a winning majority from the 47 member associations and has talked about bringing greater transparency to the AFC, but his critics have raised questions about the crackdown of a pro-democracy uprising in Bahrain in 2011.

Two human rights groups called on Fifa President Sepp Blatter to remove the 46-year-old Manchester United-supporting member of the Bahraini royal family from the election, saying local players, referees and administrators were tortured for their part in the uprising.

Sheikh Salman denied the claims, and the accusations have not prevented the head of the influential Olympic Council of Asia, Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah, from backing his campaign.

Meanwhile, Al Serkal has promised to declare all benefits and expenses he accrues as president should he win the vote in a transparency campaign that has offered the most detailed pledges of the quartet.

Al Serkal and Sheikh Salman have both tipped themselves for victory but with the duo likely to split the vote in the 13-member West Asian Soccer Federation, Al Medlej has emerged as a compromise candidate.

The shorter term on offer this time is a result of Bin Hammam’s exit. The Qatari was elected unopposed as AFC president for a third four-year term in 2011, leaving two years on that cycle.

Whoever gets elected after the polls tomorrow will have the mammoth task over getting the football administration in Asia back on track within a limited time period.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 1^st, 2013.