Bahraini says he is favourite for AFC top job

Bahrain's Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, who is running for the West Asia seat in the FIFA executive committee, arrives for a dinner in conjunction with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Congress in Kuala Lumpur in this file photo May 7, 2009.  [Photo/Agencies]

MANAMA - The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president should automatically be on world body FIFA's executive committee instead of having to go through a separate vote, Bahraini soccer head Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa said on Tuesday.

Sheikh Salman is standing for both positions at a May 2 vote in Kuala Lumpur but Hassan al Thawadi, leader of Qatar's winning 2022 World Cup bid, is seeking election only to FIFA's top committee.

"How can we have a president who cannot have our voice in FIFA?" the Bahraini, who felt he was favourite to win the AFC presidency, told Reuters in an interview in his Manama office.

"Those two positions should be in one. To have a candidate running for just one post and not another I regard as a compromise, a weak position just to accept what they can get," he added.

The executive committee position is a five-year term running to 2017 while the vote for AFC president will elect a new Asian soccer head for two years to replace disgraced Qatari Mohamed Bin Hammam.

Bin Hammam has been banned for life by FIFA for corruption and bribery and his place has been filled temporarily by China's Zhang Jilong, who has also sat on FIFA's executive committee.

Four candidates are vying for the presidency, three of them from the Gulf region and the other being Thailand's FIFA executive committee member Worawi Makudi. Sheikh Salman's local rivals are UAE soccer chief Yousuf Al Serkal and Saudi Arabia official Hafez Ibrahim Al Medlej.

The Bahraini positioned himself, as someone who was not in the Bin Hammam circle, as the outsider who could step in and clean up Asian soccer's corrupted image.

Tackling the scourge of match-fixing in Asia would be a clear priority, with zero tolerance for offenders and enlisting the help of governments, as well as treating all national associations as equals no matter how big or small.

"I think people have sensed the wind of change," said the man who lost the AFC vote for the FIFA seat 23-21 to Bin Hammam in 2009. "I think I represent the new face of Asia.

"People who want to vote for the change, the choice is clear. If people want to leave matters as they are, they have the right to do so.

"I think for the last few years it's been like a roller-coaster up and down that the AFC has suffered," he added. "I think it's time to steer the ship to calmer waters. This is what I'd like to do."

Changes Needed

Asked whether he felt his rivals were 'tainted' by association with Bin Hammam, he replied: "I don't want to use any negative campaigning about any others...but I think the (national associations) around Asia can understand where each individual stands and who they represent.

"I can feel that people want to embrace that change...we want a clean AFC, we want to do the changes that are needed, the transparency."

Bahrain has made headlines of late for a bloody response to a 2011 uprising and continuing civil unrest with almost daily clashes between pro-democracy protesters and the authorities.

The crackdown included the arrest of several soccer players and allegations that they had been tortured.

Asked whether the unrest and allegations had impacted on his campaign, Sheikh Salman said sport and politics should be kept apart.

"My response is let's talk about football and leave the political side to the other people who deal with that," he said. "We hear reports a lot from all sides and I am here to talk about the elections.

"I don't want to talk about these matters because the moment you talk about it, it opens the door.

"Since I have been in charge of football here in Bahrain, we always leave religious and political matters and views outside to try to focus on the game."

He was keener to discuss an accusation by Al Serkal that the Olympic Council of Asia, run by Kuwait's Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah, was meddling in the AFC election by endorsing him and trying to influence the vote.

"We should be more mature than that," he said of Al Serkal's words. "We know that there are people supporting others and this happens in an election. If he (Sheikh Ahmad) wants to support me, he is free to support me.

"We should talk about the main issues rather than the other candidates. I think it's just a weak position if the candidate is talking about the others rather than what he is willing to do and his programme."

Sheikh Salman denied suggestions he was a 'puppet' for the Kuwaiti Olympic chief.

"I'll be my own man and I've got two years to prove that. I can say of the others that they are puppets of other regimes or other countries? Would that be right? I don't think so," he retorted.

On other issues, the Bahraini said he was in favour of the hijab in women's soccer if it helped the game to grow in countries with cultural hurdles and religious taboos to overcome, such as neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

"We'd like to encourage women's football in this region. we've got the world champions in Japan and we'd like to encourage this in west Asia as well," he said.

"Bahrain has a women's team and they've done a terrific job. We'd like to encourage it at school level, at a club level. It's going to take time. There's always a cultural barrier that we feel in some countries."