09 May

By the very closest of margins, after one of the most bitter Asian football elections, Mohamed bin Hammam won by a 23-21 voting to be the FIFA Executive Committee member (West Asia). The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president beat Bahrain’s Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa in a poll of the 46-member confederation at the AFC Congress at the Mandarin Oriental in Kuala Lumpur. There were two spoilt votes. “It’s a very close call in a very democratic election,” said Sheikh Salman, the Bahrain Football Association president, who campaigned on the refreshing platform of “Asia for Change”. “I accept the decision. I believe it is...

12:07 / International / Sports
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08 May

Asia's football chiefs today called off a vote on whether to shift the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) headquarters away from Kuala Lumpur. The 46 members of the AFC had been due to vote later today on whether or not to accept bids from other nations to host the regional body. At the beginning of the annual congress, however, AFC president Mohamed Bin Hammam asked members to scratch that issue from the day's agenda. "Yesterday I met with the Prime Minister of Malaysia (Datuk Seri Najib Razak) who has shown great sympathy and concern over keeping our headquarters in Malaysia," the Qatari told the...

12:05 / International / Sports
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07 May

Kuwait FA has been barred from voting by the AFC Executive Committee which met this morning. The AFC Congress is schedule for tomorrow (May 8th, 2009) to elect Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa or Mohamed bin Hammam for the FIFA vice president’s seat (West Asia). It is learnt that FIFA will intervene in the matter and an make an official announcement....

12:04 / International / Sports
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06 May

The unintentional “desert” remark of Dato’ Peter Velappan on Tuesday became a tongue-in-cheek talking point at Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah’s press conference today. Velappan, the former general secretary of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), had unreservedly apologised after making the remark in relation to AFC president Mohamed bin Hammam. But Sheikh Ahmad, the Kuwait Football Association president, said he was personally “proud to be a desert man” in casting his vote at Friday’s AFC Congress election in a “contest of two desert people” for the post of FIFA Executive Member (West Asia). “I’m proud to be a desert man and I’ll be voting...

12:02 / International / Sports
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06 May

Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah has called for an united show of Asian solidarity as a partition of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) seems imminent in the run-up to Friday’s AFC Congress in Kuala Lumpur. “The division of the Asian football family saddens me very much. The situation is very serious and there will be global sporting repercussions to the present disunited stand in Asia,” said the president of the Kuwait Football Association. Up for grabs on Friday: The post of FIFA Executive Committee (West Asia) with two Arab candidates, Mohamed Bin Hammam of Qatar and Bahraini Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, once...

10:19 / International / Sports
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06 May

The continued in-fighting within the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) could result in the suspension of the world’s second largest confederation. Dato’ Peter Velappan warned that FIFA, the world football controlling body, may even withhold recognition of a split AFC. Painting out the worst-case scenario ahead of Friday’s AFC Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Velappan, the longest-serving AFC former general secretary (1978-2007), said the consequences of the prolonged disunity among the 46 member associations can have unprecedented repercussions. “If Friday’s AFC Congress gets out of hand, there could be a split right down the middle especially if the AFC president (Mohamed bin Hammam) puts his...

10:16 / International / Sports
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03 May

Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa made his election-platform clear today: “I don’t want to be the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) president.” He is focused on Friday’s AFC Congress meeting to win the post of FIFA Executive Committee Member (West Asia). Sheikh Salman, the president of the Bahrain FA and a member of the Bahraini royal family, takes on the incumbent, Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar, who is also the AFC president. “I want to bring about a bigger voice for Asia on the global platform and at the same time, I want change for Asian football,” he said in his first press conference...

10:12 / International
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03 May

More than half of Asia’s 46-member football confederation in calling for “Fair Play” have beseeched FIFA to intervene and monitor the May 8 Asian Football Confederation Congress, which they believe could be tainted with unethical conduct. A total of 24 countries signed a joint memorandum to the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, addressed to president Joseph Blatter, expressing their “fear and concern” over Friday’s upcoming election for a FIFA Executive Committee seat. Their main grouse is their fear that closed circuit cameras could be placed strategically near or over the “voting booths”. The concerned delegates believe that their fears are not unfounded. Lashing out...

10:09 / International
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02 May

The Kuwaitis were told they would be excluded from voting in Friday’s AFC Congress in Kuala Lumpur because the confederation did not recognise the temporary committee formed to run the sport's affairs in the country. Five other nations -- Afghanistan, Brunei, Laos, East Timor and Mongolia -- were also barred as a result of not having played in enough of the confederation's competitions over the last two years. AFC insiders said Kuwait were allowed to vote at the last AFC Congress and this sudden change to bar them smacks of “sporting foul play”. “Kuwait are being penalised because they’re campaigning for Sheikh Salman...

10:01 / Sports
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30 Apr

Against a backdrop of controversies and intense politicking, FIFA and Asian Football Confederation executive committee member Junji Ogura called on all Member Associations and the authorities concerned to convene the May 8th AFC Congress in Kuala Lumpur in accordance with the decisions of FIFA. In a faxed statement to members, AFC executive Committee, presidents and general secretaries of Member Associations, Ogura of Japan reiterated the stand of FIFA Legal Affairs Department on three issues that had become a major source of discontentment within certain quarters of the Asian body. The three are – the voting rights of five associations in relation to participation...

09:58 / International / Sports
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