Andrew Warshaw: Movers and Sheikhers locked in AFC dance-off

There is nothing like a western-orchestrated attack on one of its member federations to put Asian football’s nose out of joint and provoke a strong response.

Over the past few days, both the head of the Asian Football Confederation, Sheikh Salman Ebrahim El Khalifa, and Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al-Sabah, Asia’s Olympic supremo, have joined forces to roundly condemn the corruption allegations being hurled at Qatar over its 2022 World Cup bid.

Whilst protecting one of their own is completely understandable and standard practise, in this case it also provides a timely excuse to deflect attention away from an issue that is causing deep division within the corridors of power in Asian football and which is expected to come to a head in Sao Paulo on Monday.

Whilst global attention is focussed on the FIFA Congress Tuesday and Wednesday and all the backslapping and handshaking that goes with it, 24 hours earlier Asian delegates meet across town for their own 47-nation Extraordinary Congress that promises to be an uncomfortable affair.

Salman might like to give the impression that everyone in his Confederation is singing from the same hymn sheet but the truth is far removed from that. Ever since he took over last year, the Bahraini has been determined to increase his power base by trying to merge his presidency with the FIFA vice-presidency currently held by Jordan’s Prince Ali bin Hussein. The pair are supposed to be colleagues yet have turned into political foes.

Sheikh Salman insists his attempt to unseat Prince Ali is nothing personal and is simply about status and precedence and streamlining the organisation to get things done more efficiently.

So divisive has the rift become (it is rumoured that Salman, for instance, instructed more than a dozen AFC federations not to attend last month’s Soccerex conference hosted by Prince Ali) that on Monday Salman will hope to persuade the AFC membership to change the statutes in order to unite the roles of president and FIFA vice-president in a year’s time – effectively ending Prince Ali’s tenure.

In the buildup to Monday’s Congress, both sides have been lobbying fiercely – almost election-style – to gain support. Salman knows it’s a tall order getting the three-quarters majority he needs. After all, only a year ago the very same proposal was overwhelmingly crushed.

By the same token Prince Ali’s camp are fully aware that things have moved on since then, not least with Salman having been in the hot seat for a year, a position from which he has been able to hold considerable sway over the membership.

Prince Ali, elected three years ago, has been in his post two years longer than Salman has been in his. That should make a difference but will it? Both positions are up for re-election next year but the balance of power will shift decisively if Prince Ali loses on Monday.

FIFA have already rebuffed Salman’s bid to win their support, telling him it was a matter for the AFC itself and not the world governing body. But Salman has a close and powerful ally in his ranks in Sheikh Ahmad, the highly influential president of the Olympic Council of Asia who forcefully backed Salman in the bitter AFC election campaign last year.

The pair make a formidable unit but Prince Ali, very much part of the reformist new wave of FIFA executive members, is optimistic he will pick up enough support from within the various AFC factions. He has been telling everyone who will listen how important it is for him to complete his work to develop the game on and off the field and eliminate some of the wrongdoing that has plagued Asian football.

He certainly holds the moral high ground for a number of reasons.

For a start, he is believed to have supported Sheikh Salman’s bid to become AFC president, only now to find himself stabbed in the back. Secondly, it is understood that Salman lined up alongside the FIFA old guard who tried – and failed – to halt the ethics inquiry into Qatar being awarded the 2022 World Cup being conducted by FIFA’s independent investigator Michael Garcia. And thirdly, insiders believe Salman is privately keen to trade the co-opted FIFA exco position being held by Australia’s Moya Dodd for an additional permanent exco seat for Asia since merging the two positions in question would free up exactly that.

Many believe one the reasons the good governance reforms promised by Salman have not come to fruition is the effect of the massive and controversial exclusive commercial rights deal that was struck between the AFC and the Singapore-based World Sports Group and which was inherited by Salman. “The deal is choking development of the game in Asia,” was how one insider put it to me.

If Salman wants to remove Prince Ali, let him do so in a free and fair election fight. No-one would have any argument with that. But to try and expand his power base this way at the expense of one the few football executives who appears at least to be using his position for the greater good of the game serves as a dangerous precedent.

Andrew Warshaw was formerly Sports Editor of the The European newspaper and is chief correspondent of Insideworldfootball. Contact Andrew at moc.l1731275093labto1731275093ofdlr1731275093owdis1731275093ni@wa1731275093hsraw1731275093.werd1731275093na1731275093