SINGAPORE: Mohammed Bin Hammam’s lifetime ban from soccer is likely to transform Friday’s scheduled Asian Football Confederation (AFC) executive committee meeting into a platform for prospective candidates to campaign for votes to fill his presidential role.
AFC president since 2002, Bin Hammam plans to appeal the FIFA ethics committee ruling on Saturday that the 62-year-old Qatari was guilty of trying to buy votes in his failed bid to oust Sepp Blatter as the head of world soccer in June.
China’s Zhang Jilong, an AFC vice-president but not a member of the all-powerful FIFA executive committee, has been in temporary charge of the regional body since Bin Hammam was initially suspended at the end of May.
He said in a statement on Sunday that the AFC must stay united after the incident which followed a number of match-fixing scandals across their 46 member associations.
”I, in my capacity as the acting AFC president, am aware of the urgent need to provide a strong leadership that will work closely with the member associations towards creating a climate of trust and confidence.
Zhang’s comments of providing support to the likes of South Korea, engulfed in a match-fixing scandal that has led to the arrest of a number of players in the top-flight K-League, are far different from the reserved stance he took when discussing the topic with Reuters last month.
The problem for Zhang, if he does choose to run, is that he may not hold enough popularity among Asia’s member associations.
While he assumed the role as temporary head via his position as the most senior member of the AFC, he failed to win a seat on the FIFA executive committee in January after losing out in a race for two positions.
The two men that beat Zhang at the AFC elections in Qatar earlier this year were Thailand’s Worawi Makudi and Sri Lanka’s Manilal Fernando, who both accompanied Bin Hammam on the ill-fated trip to Trinidad, where he was found guilty of bribing officials.
Worawi is a long serving member of the AFC and has sat on the FIFA executive committee board since 1997, but has been forced to repel claims that he asked for bribes from England in return for his vote in the 2018 World Cup hosting battle.
The Thai, who has retained power in his country despite numerous protests by fans demanding he resign over poor national team performances, was cleared by FIFA of the allegations but the experience may persuade him to stay away.
The straight talking Fernando is in his third spell as a member of the AFC executive committee after first joining in 1979 and has held a number of roles inside the organisation before becoming a vice-president.
Both could be tempted to run for the presidency after serving on the AFC for long periods and both could probably count on the support of Bin Hammam’s AFC allies, should the Qatari back their bid.
However, with Bin Hammam talking confidently of winning an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), both are likely to wait to see if there are any more twists in the Qatari’s case.
The other possible contender for the role could be 35-year-old Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan, who surprisingly claimed South Korean Chung Mong-joon’s FIFA vice-president seat in January. (Reuters)