By Paul Nicholson in Manama, Bahrain
May 8 – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) finally completed their election of members to the FIFA Council with Bangladesh’s Mahfuza Akhter Kiron overcoming Australia’s Moya Dodd 27-17 after the withdrawal of Palestinian and North Korean candidates turned the vote into a straight run-off. For the three other AFC positions on the FIFA Council there were only three candidates – China’s Zhang Jian Chung, South Korea’s Mong Gyu and Mariano V. Araneta Jr. from the Phillipines. All were elected unopposed.
South Korea’s Chung was also separately elected to fill the AFC Vice President (East) role though to 2019.
The election for the three FIFA Council slots should originally have included Qatar’s Saud Al Mohannadi. He was banned but then cleared by FIFA, but his clearance came too late for him to enter the election. Kuwait’s Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah withdrew from the election and all football positions after the latest corruption scandal saw Guam’s Richard Lai allegedly implicate him.
The newly elected FIFA Council members mark a shift in the regional representation at FIFA’s top table towards East Asia. AFC president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa is the only representative from West Asia at FIFA. West Asia will host three major FIFA championships in the next five years with the UAE hosting the Club World Club and Qatar the World Cup in 2022.
FIFA has recently announced it will be opening a development office in Dubai but it is not quite the same as participating first hand in the dialogue at the top table.
The election of Mahfuza Kiron over veteran (in relative terms) Moya Dodd was a decision that raised eyebrows but was perhaps ultimately not a huge surprise. Dodd has been an outstanding representative of the women’s game globally, and was one of the first women to serve on the FIFA executive committee before the FIFA Council took over. She has been a relentless and impressive promoter of the women’s game and equality.
Kiron, a member of the AFC Executive and Womens’ Committees has big shoes to step into on the world stage.
Salman kicks off week of Congresses
In welcoming delegates to his home country of Bahrain and opening the 27th AFC Congress Shaikh Salman acknowledged the corruption scandals that have brought momentuous change to FIFA saying that “we all recognise that this was the beginning not the finish”.
He expressed pride in the Asian contribution to change saying: “I am proud Asia united fully last February for reform. I am proud of the role the AFC showing unanimity and solidarity.” As a showreel of the AFC’s seemingly multiple committees and activities showed, this is a confederation that is not dwelling on the past – FIFA should perhaps take note.
With a new commercial rights tender in preparation, Salman highlighted the AFC’s positive finances. “Our financial position is better than ever,” he said. “Our competitions have grown in prestige, we have increased prize money, the Asian Champions League is now one of the leading club competitions in the world.”
Emphasising the importance of the member associations he said that “none of this is possible without your support and we are committed to making you stronger. Member Association development is our priority. You are our priority.”
Shaikh Salman was followed by FIFA president Gianni Infantino who said: “I know that here I am amongst friends.” A good if slightly ironic opening after the last aborted congress in Goa he attended that lasted less than 30 minutes. “Asia is a big continient and this year many FIFA events are taking place here – a Club World Cup in the UAE, the U17s World Cup in India, the U20s World Cup in South Korea. We will come back to Asia many time this year to celebrate football.”
Infantino then warmed to what will be a recurring message this week to confederations and to FIFA’s Congress on Thursday. “We have to focus on football – that is our main task,” he said. “Of course there are many challenges. We went through some difficult times and FIFA implemented and is iimplementing day by day reforms. You can always count on this work of FIFA.” Count on it perhaps, but one gets the feeling that the trust of Asia is not so easily won.
Infantino’s route to that trust is by providing more money to national federations – “we are multiplying by 3 or 4 times and doing this with the same revenues” (which is it three or four, most federations have yet to see it) and with more World Cup places; “We have decided to increase the number of teams in the World Cup – from 4.5 to 8.5 slots (for Asia) in a 48-team World Cup.”
He also said that financially FIFA has no problems and that by the end of next year it will have $100 million more in reserves than it did four years ago.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1714931227labto1714931227ofdlr1714931227owedi1714931227sni@n1714931227osloh1714931227cin.l1714931227uap1714931227
