Moves to oust embattled Asian Football Confederation president Mohammed bin Hammam are gaining momentum with his key challenger insisting support for his “autocratic” rule is rapidly waning.
Bahrain’s Shaikh Salman Ebrahim Al Khalifa will pit himself against Bin Hammam for his FIFA executive committee seat on May 8 after several recent moves by the Qatari upset powerful factions of the regional football body.
“I know president Bin Hammam very well. We all supported him in the beginning but I think that vote of trust we gave him, I am very sorry to say, we have created a dictator,” Shaikh Salman said in comments emailed to AFP.
“He is not for all but for himself. We think there is a line that has been drawn and this line has been crossed. His autocratic decisions have divided Asian football.”
Asia has four seats on the FIFA executive committee — South Korea’s Chung Mong-Joon as vice president, Japan’s Junji Ogura from East Asia, Thailand’s Worawi Makudi from Southeast Asia, and Bin Hammam.
The Qatari’s is the only position up for election.
While Bin Hammam’s presidency of the AFC does not expire until 2011, he has indicated that if he loses his long-held FIFA seat then he will also quit as AFC chief.
Shaikh Salman claims not to be interested in the powerful AFC post, only the FIFA position.
“Whether he stays as AFC president or doesn’t stay does not matter to me,” he said. “I have no intention of running for AFC president.”
Several key Bin Hammam proposals have proved controversial.
They include his plan to move the AFC headquarters out of Malaysia, a proposed 12-year marketing deal with World Sport Group and amendments to the AFC statutes that would consolidate his power.
While the challenge is coming from Bahrain, it is crucially supported by other heavyweight members including Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.
At a meeting last week, Salman said 19 of the AFC’s 46 affiliated football associations pledged their support for him and his campaign slogan, “AFC — Asia For Change”, leaving him just short of a majority.
Informed sources told AFP that in East Asia Shaikh Salman has the support of all the associations except China and North Korea, who remain loyal to Bin Hammam.
Australia is also in the Bin Hammam camp, as are most Central Asian nations except Turkmenistan.
Kazama
Roar Guru
Well, we're definitely not aligned with the West, after some of them (most notably Kuwait) asked to have us booted out of the AFC not long after we were originally accepted. As much as I am against some of MbH's decisions at least he wants us here (even if he's just using us to carry a WC finals spot). If he is replaced by a rep from Western Asia we may be back in Oceania before long.
Midfielder
Guest
Greg A very good question you ask.... being independent could have some real advantages right now.
dasilva
Roar Guru
I know we are nominally South East Asian faction although we are not full members of the SEA faction. However I don't believe we are part of any particular voting bloc. We are supporting Bin Hammen as he is a key reason why we join Asia in hte first place. It was his supported that manage to get Australia to join Asia. Him getting ousted could have some implication on Australia especially if some of the faction chooses a replacement who opposed Australian involvement in Asia.
Greg Russell
Roar Guru
If Jesse Fink is reading, perhaps he could pen an article to explain to us what is really going on here. Incidentally, is Australia aligned with neither the East Asia nor Central Asia nor West Asia factions in AFC politics? I thought if anything the FFA was closest to the East Asian nations. Is it a good or a bad thing to be independent?