How much more ugly can the divisions within Asian football become? In a couple of weeks’ time, Jordan stages the latest Soccerex football business conference for the game’s movers and shakers but it does so against the backdrop of festering resentment and unsavoury internecine warfare.
The recent decision by FIFA vice-president Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, head of Jordanian football, to issue an open letter to the entire Asian football membership denouncing Asian Football Confederation chief Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa for trying to mastermind his downfall by playing politics took most observers totally by surprise.
But Prince Ali didn’t take his decision lightly. He had become infuriated at Salman’s attempt to increase his power base by unconstitutionally trying to combine the positions of AFC president and Asia’s FIFA vice president, even though the same proposal was overwhelmingly crushed by all but two of Asia’s 47 members at the AFC Congress last year. Whilst not on the agenda at Soccerex, you can bet your last dollar – or the equivalent Jordanian currency – that the ongoing spat will be uppermost in many delegates’ minds when they converge on the edge of the Dead Sea for what promises to be two days of stimulating debate and discussion.
Trying to make logical sense of Asian football politics is difficult at the best of times but Salman’s opponents are clear about what he is trying to do: use his current position to bargain for support so that if and when he is handed another term of office in 2015, he ends up with total control of the region.
Whether or not one agrees with the principle of a Confederation boss doubling up as that same confederation’s top man at FIFA (from a governance standpoint there are pros and cons, one person’s streamlining is another person’s concentration of power), recent manoeuvrings are threatening once again to bring Asian football to its knees just when it needs stability and everyone pulling together.
One might have thought that having recently failed to obtain FIFA backing for the merger, Sheikh Salman who, it is important to stress, opposed the very same idea when former AFC boss Mohammed bin Hammam wanted to do the same thing, would accept the current status quo and move on.
Instead, he appears to have been lobbying support to try once more – this time at the forthcoming AFC Congress in Sao Paolo in June – to change the rules, much to the anger of Prince Ali, who has been Asia’s FIFA vice-president since 2011, elected two years before (not after) Sheikh Salman took over the reins as the most powerful official in Asian football.
Why has it come to this? Why can’t the two men work together? Is it simply a personality clash, do they genuinely dislike one another or is there a more sinister explanation?
One theory doing the rounds is that south and central Asian countries, at present part of the same grouping, have been privately promised their own separate zones by Salman if they, in return, back his merger plan. Another is that having been only after one thing last year – the AFC presidency – Salman’s ambitions then switched to include the FIFA vice-presidency too. “Having conquered his first pick, he is now after his second pick”, is how one AFC source put it to me.
Whatever the truth, the reality, sadly, is that efforts to reform Asian football continue to stall. Instead of focussing on the real issues on and off the pitch, the minds of the autocrats are already on next year’s elections. While candidates for the AFC presidency have yet to be announced, Sheikh Salman, suddenly supported by a somewhat unpalatable alliance that includes the likes of North Korea, Pakistan and Indonesia, appears to be trying as hard as he can to terminate Prince Ali’s role in part-running Asian football and nip the young reformist’s ideas in the bud.
Oddly, Qatar is another of the eight federations who have suddenly agreed to side with Sheikh Salman over changing the statutes. Odd because not so long ago, Hassan al-Thawadi, the admirable public face of Qatar’s World Cup bid, was beaten by Salman himself in the race for a FIFA exco seat. From what I have gathered, Prince Ali’s supporters are more shocked by Qatar’s stance than by any of the other seven.
Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organising committee is, of course, an entirely different body from the national federation. But they are nevertheless operating in the same country.
Why the sudden change of heart by a handful of federations? They know it will take three-quarters of the AFC membership to change the statutes, a figure that Sheikh Salman currently isn’t anywhere near achieving. It’s yet another intriguing question. Could the answer be that, this time, he is daring the AFC membership to defy the intentions and desires of their sitting president?
So far, there has been no response from the Salman camp to Prince Ali’s remarkable public outburst. At least not in public. No explanation as to why he seems to be trying every legal tactic in the book to continue his fight for ultimate supremacy.
The political battle in many ways highlights a situation in which those who run Asian football, or shall we say parts of it, don’t have to worry about being brought to account by the region’s fans or media as happens, say, in Europe.
For the moment neither of the two main protagonists seem likely to be prepared to give ground and how it will all end is anyone’s guess. Ultimately, in order to complete his work, don’t rule out the possibility of Prince Ali taking on Sheikh Salman head to head for the AFC presidency next year. He has always indicated he doesn’t want the role but if the current impasse isn’t resolved satisfactorily, he may have no choice. Targeting a FIFA exco seat if he loses the vice-presidency could be a second option even if that means taking on the well-respected Japanese candidate Tashima Kohzo who has already announced he intends to stand next time round.
Since Prince Ali’s open letter, there has been an uneasy calm as the region waits for the next explosive development. The AFC’s June Congress just before the World Cup was supposed to have been a routine affair. It won’t be now.
Andrew Warshaw was formerly Sports Editor of the The European newspaper and is chief correspondent of Insideworldfootball. Contact Andrew at moc.l1714070660labto1714070660ofdlr1714070660owdis1714070660ni@wa1714070660hsraw1714070660.werd1714070660na1714070660