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...

The embattled President of the Asian Football Confederation, Mohamed bin Hammam, has defied FIFA and rejected their instruction to re-instate the voting rights of five countries who were banned from taking part in the May 8 AFC Congress. The impending ban on the five nations – some of whom had given their allegiance to Hammam’s challenger for the FIFA seat Sheikh Salman Al-Khalifa -- was decided by AFC’s ad-hoc Legal Committee that was formed early this year. The Legal Committee was one of three Standing Committees removed from the list at the 2007 AFC Congress. The others were Medical, and the Ethics & Fairplay Committees. The AFC president’s defiance is reflected in...

FORMER Perak players Carlos Caceres, Jorge Nunoz and Mario Bario (left), who featured for Perak in the 2007 and 2008 seasons, have written to Fifa seeking the world body's assistance to help claim a combined total of US$54,000 (RM186,000) owing to them in salaries by the Perak FA. The Chilean trio have waited for about four months since writing to the FA of Malaysia and have not received a reply. The FA of Malaysia said that it's is not its fault since it is the Perak Football Association (PFA) who owe the money. But where Fifa is concerned it only...