The Malaysian fly in Australia 2018′s ointment

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By Jesse Fink, 18 Mar 2009 Jesse Fink is a Roar Pro

Tagged:: football, Mohammed bin Hammam, World Cup

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How ironic that on the day Australia formally lodged its bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups proverbial knives were being sharpened in Kuala Lumpur for the head (Neck? Back? Damn, it’s gonna be messy, whatever happens) of the president of the Asian Football Confederation, Mohammed bin Hammam.

As we saw with Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysians sure know how to take out a guy when they put their minds to it.

It’s ironic because Hammam was probably the best ally Australia ever had in Asia and his support (though it has hitherto been conditional) is crucial in the political tango that goes in securing votes from FIFA’s executive committee, the body that anoints World Cup hosts.

The Machiavellian antics at the AFC have been going on for years, ever since Hammam squeezed out his rival, the Malaysian football powerbroker and former AFC kingpin Peter Velappan, and took away all his executive responsibilities to the point he was like that sad character, the IT clerk Milton Waddams, in Mike Judge’s brilliant movie Office Space, who becomes a victim of downsizing, gets his stapler taken away and gets shunted into the basement.

Eventually he figures out he’s not wanted and burns the building down. Velappan, who I’ve been fascinated by for some time now, wondering when he’s going to crack, is having his revenge.

The breaking point for the Malay Tamil came with Hammam’s announcement that he intended to move the headquarters of the AFC out of Malaysia for the first time, likely to the Middle East.

Malaysia has long played a role in Asian football politics disproportionate to its FIFA ranking courtesy of having AFC House on its own patch, and for Velappan, already humiliated by Hammam, this was a step too far. In a recent interview with the Japan Times, Velappan said Hammam did “not know the culture of Asian football and has imposed desert values.”

Ouch.

Velappan’s Trojan horse is Sheikh Salman Al Khalifa, who recently received the support of nearly two dozen key Asian backers (including China, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Japan) at the Olympic Council of Asia Sports Congress in Kuwait to take Hammam’s seat on FIFA’s executive committee as representative of the AFC when his term runs out.

The next AFC Congress is in May and Khalifa wants to be installed at that meeting.

Hammam, for his part, is frantically combing through the statutes, trying to find any way to block the Bahraini’s challenge. If he does not retain his seat on the executive committee, he says he will resign as president of the AFC.

The portents are not good for the Qatari. Whatever happens to Hammam, Australia stands to lose.

As Velappan said in another interview, “Asian countries bidding for the World Cup are likely to be handicapped by the current turmoil in the AFC family”.

A rich comment coming from someone who is fomenting the trouble himself and claims to have the best interests of Asian football at heart.

There is also the delicate issue of who Australia supports, Khalifa or Hammam. Football Federation Australia president Frank Lowy has been a limpet on Hammam’s side ever since Australia joined the AFC in 2005 but he will be acutely aware of the need to show solidarity with his friend while publicly stepping back from that relationship with Khalifa hovering in the shadows.

He will also be cognisant of Velappan’s and the West Asia bloc’s historic antipathy to Australia being part of the AFC. How he plays that game will go a long way to determining the success or failure of our World Cup bid.

If Australia 2018 was already a tough ask, it just got a whole lot tougher.

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The Crowd Says (16) | Page 1 of Comments

Pippinu said | March 18th 2009 @ 8:51am | Report comment

Good article.

Whichever way you slice or dice it, it doesn’t augur well for Australia.

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Kazama said | March 18th 2009 @ 9:05am | Report comment

Cheers Jesse, great article. How this all plays out will have a big impact on Australia’s footballing future IMO, especially if Khalifa wins and he doesn’t care for us or our plans. I have problems with some of MbH’s decisions and demands but at least he is happy to have us around and to be bidding for a World Cup; of course, so long as we are marching to his beat.

The machinations at the top levels of Asian football are like a political thriller come to life. It’s unfortunate that we are involved in them now and that the outcomes will directly affect us.

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Albert Ross said | March 18th 2009 @ 9:48am | Report comment

We were never going to get 2018 were we? Yerp wouldsurely have first dibs given that they so graciously gave up their buggin’s turn in 2014 for Brazil.

2022 is a possibility but surely the USA bid would have some allure for FIFA.

All this strife in the AFC might have some interesting outcomes. One plausible scenario is for FIFA to shunt East Asia and the ME to their own “desert” zone with 1.5 WC spots and set up a Pacific zone with West Asia, USA and Canada and the rump of Oceania. Mexico and the rest of the CONCACAF could join CONMEBOL and become their problem child if only to distract them from their path to world domination by having mostly high class matches in their fixture lists.

Outfits like Malaysia could be offered a “once only” chance to do a Kazakhstan and decamp to their mates in the Desert zone. If they do it will be a relief to all as the Malaysians have this idea that the world rotates around the Petronas towers. Alternatively Michael C and Pip could be offered a deal whereby they go to Malaysia to introduce them to the one true sporting faith.

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The Bear said | March 18th 2009 @ 10:36am | Report comment

LOL.

In all seriousness the AFC may never be the same again. Our country’s involvement (and FIFA’s) in World football may alter the course of events yet to be imagined, as Albert has mused above.

To be honest, and I am not proud of this, but I am bit surprised Malaysia has so much historical clout in the confederation. Geographically it makes some sense, I guess, especially with Australia’s inclusion in “Asia”.

The bottom line is that if Asia wants recognition, on the WC hosting front, it will back Australia for 2018. For 2022 it may be murkier for 2022, yet I believe we have the best chance of all competing Asian countries.

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md said | March 18th 2009 @ 1:26pm | Report comment

Pippinu. Bugger that. It doesn’t auger well for my bet with you!!!
Cheers
md.

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Pippinu said | March 18th 2009 @ 1:28pm | Report comment

md
heh, heh – you read me like a book!!

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md said | March 18th 2009 @ 1:35pm | Report comment

On the point of world cup voting ,the AFC – along with the Africans and Americans (north and south) need to stand up to UEFA’s demand that the WC return to Europe every 3 cups – that is a neocolonialist and insulting demand completely out of step with modern global politics. Indeed, the other confederations should make a point of ensuring that 2018 goes to Asia simply to remind UEFA and its cronies in FIFA that the world cup is just that, and not a relic of 19th century geo-politics to be loaned out to the rest of the world as a gesture of good will.

Cheers
md

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The Bear said | March 18th 2009 @ 4:28pm | Report comment

here, here,…

HERE.

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Spiro Zavos said | March 18th 2009 @ 5:55pm | Report comment

That jersey present to PM Kevin Rudd is turing out to be a $40 million sham for the Australian tax payer. Does anyone seriously believe that Australia will host a football World Cup before 2050? I’ll believe that Australia has a chance before that when Frank Lowy put up many millions of his own money towards this folly.
Jesse has brilliantly exposed the snake pit which is the politics of world football. Australia does not have the football weight or tradition or money to have any impact in this arena, except to be as a rather naive bystander.
We are innocents abroad when it comes to this politicking. Why not pull out now and save us all a great dollops of money.

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dasilva said | March 18th 2009 @ 6:10pm | Report comment

Spiro
one world cup is going to europe (most likely 2018), the other is going to another continent

According to odds australia are 5-1 to win the world cup bid. England are favorites and Australia are equal favorites with Spain/portugal

either australia, USA, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Qatar, Mexico

none of these countries are that intimidating considering japan and korea host it recently in 2002. Mexico has hosted the world cup 2 times and would host it unprecedented 3 times if they win the bid and qatar and indonesia bid are a joke. this leaves Australia and USA as IMO the only serious contenders for the 2022 world cup.

I also don’t buy this Australia are naive bystanders with no experience in politics as that’s just lazy stereotyping. As I recall we were quite devious and smart in winning the olympics. Lowy is not a novice to get where he has. We also hired people who handled the germany bid in 2006 to assist with our bidding process. this is not a waste of money.

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