By Andrew Warshaw
October 10 – FIFA have appointed China’s Zhang Jilong, acting head of Asian football, to chair next week’s meeting of the London 2012 Olympic football tournament’s Organising Committee.
Jilong’s appointment comes three weeks after Confederation of African Football (CAF) supremo Issa Hayatou, an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member, was embarrassingly and mistakenly announced as being given the role instead.
Hayatou is still being investigated by the IOC’s Ethics Commission over allegations that he took backhanders from FIFA’s former marketing partner, ISL.
FIFA blamed a technical error for saying Hayatou was to head its Olympic football body for London 2012.
Zhang took over as acting boss of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) from Mohamed Bin Hammam when he was banned for life over the recent bribery scandal.
His appointment has to be ratified by FIFA’s Executive Committee on Oct 20 but that should be a formality given that Zhang will sit on the Committee in place of Bin Hammam.
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