AFC president wins bitter FIFA fight

Asian Football Confederation president Mohamed bin Hammam narrowly retained his FIFA executive committee seat after one of the most vitriolic battles regional football has known.

The 60-year-old Qatari, seen as a potential future FIFA president, survived a challenge from Bahrain’s Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa by winning a tense vote at the AFC congress here by 23 to 21. Two ballots were spoiled.

It culminated a bitter fight for power in which Bin Hammam, who has held the FIFA position since 1996, had threatened to step down as the head of the AFC — Asia’s most powerful football figure — if he was defeated.

“Both sides have to come together and heal and look to the future of Asian football,” he said after the vote.

“To those who supported me, I promise I am going to do more than what I have done in the past. To those who didn’t support me, I will do my best to win back your confidence and trust.

“Asia needs all of us to work hand-in-hand together.”

Sheikh Salman accepted his defeat gracefully but said it was clear Asia was divided — and that bringing all its 46 member nations back together must be the priority.

“I congratulated the president. We need to turn the page and move forward,” he said.

“But my message is clear, we have 21 countries unhappy. We have to ask why they are unahppy, and the president needs to win back their confidence.”

Either man needed a simple majority of the AFC nations to win the vote, which was taken after an impassioned speech by FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

“I expect discipline, respect and a fighting spirit, but all in the spirit of fair play,” said Blatter.

Despite his victory, Bin Hammam, whose AFC term runs until 2011, faces a difficult few years ahead, with the Asian confederation riven by animosity, despite attempts Friday to play it down.

The campaign to oust him, led by heavyweights Kuwait, South Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia, was highlighted by allegations of corruption and vicious personal attacks.

So distrustful were some AFC members that Blatter was forced to bring a Swiss notary and lawyer with him to act as an independent supervisor of the vote, amid fears there could be irregularities.

Bin Hammam’s detractors claim he is dictatorial and that there is no transparency in the organisation’s financial affairs.

They were also concerned about his proposal to move AFC headquarters from Malaysia and a plan to sign a 12-year marketing deal with World Sport Group.

But before the vote, Bin Hammam asked for the agenda item dealing with the plan to move AFC House to be removed, which was greeted by wide applause.

Bin Hammam said he had met with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Thursday and won a promise that he would personally look into the AFC’s conditions to remain in the country.

Malaysia has hosted the AFC since 1965, and its first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman served as the organisation’s president for 24 years.

All 46 members of the AFC voted after Bin Hammam asked that Kuwait, which was expected to be barred for not having a properly elected committee, be allowed to take part.

The Qatari said he wanted them to vote in the interests of fair play.

Afghanistan, Brunei, Laos, Mongolia, and East Timor also voted after concerns that they might be excluded were ironed out.