AFC reinstates voting rights of 5 nations

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has reinstated the voting rights of five countries who could prove pivotal to the fate of under-fire president Mohamed bin Hammam.

However, a meeting of the governing body’s executive committee unanimously decided to bar Kuwait from voting at their congress Friday, a ruling that contradicts FIFA’s legal opinion.

“It was recommended that Laos, East Timor, Afghanistan, Mongolia and Brunei be given the benefit of the doubt,” an AFC insider told AFP, adding that 12 of the 17 committee members present were in favour.

“But the executive committee, according to AFC statutes, overwhelmingly agreed that Kuwait cannot vote.”

It is the culmination of an ugly saga that threatened to split the AFC, with former top official Peter Velappan warning this week that if the countries were not allowed to vote they may quit the organisation.

Laos, East Timor, Afghanistan, Mongolia and Brunei had been told by the AFC that they could not vote because they had not participated in at least three Asian competitions in the past two years.

But in a legal opinion, FIFA ruled that they had taken part in enough games, making clear that under-13 and under-14 competitions must also be considered.

An AFC executive committee member, who did not want to be named, insisted that the U-13 and U-14 tournaments were not official but an exception would be made for this congress only.

Of the five, Afghanistan, Laos and Mongolia are understood to now be backing Bin Hammam, with East Timor and Brunei behind the challenger for his FIFA executive committee seat, Bahrain’s Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa.

Bin Hammam has said he will step down as AFC chief if he loses his FIFA position, despite his term running until 2011. He needs a simple majority of the AFC’s 46 member nations to win.

As for Kuwait, they had been informed by the AFC that it did not recognise the temporary committee that is running its football affairs.

FIFA though said that it did recognise them after a suspension the Kuwait Football Association was under for political interference was provisionally lifted.

“We don’t know the reason why we are banned from voting and we are awaiting official information,” Kuwait FA vice-president Faisel Al-Dakheel told AFP.

“But the AFC has not followed FIFA’s advice which said we were eligible to vote. It’s a real pity.”