Jordan prince to challenge Chung for FIFA seat

Prince Ali bin Hussein, half-brother of Jordan’s King Abdullah II, says he plans to face-off with long-standing FIFA vice-president for Asia Chung Mong-Joon with the aim of energising football in the world’s largest continent.

Prince Ali, who turns 35 in December, will challenge the South Korean in an election for the four-year post on January 6 during the Asian Football Confederation’s congress in Doha.

“I have tremendous respect for Dr Chung. He has done a lot for football and he has been in this position as FIFA vice president for 16 years,” the prince told AFP.

“However, I do believe now that it’s time to move on and energise this position and utilise it to its maximum potential,” he said.

“There is a feeling that there is a time now, because I have the experience, but I am also young, I can put my energy into something that will serve the continent as a whole.”

On the corruption charges hanging over football’s world governing body, he said: “That is one of the reasons why I want to run, to give a good face to Asia and in FIFA.”

The world body’s chief Sepp Blatter promised on Friday that a “new FIFA” would choose the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosts but admitted changes were needed to avoid corruption scandals.

Blatter sought to turn the page on the damaging World Cup bidding and corruption allegations although he admitted that some collusion among FIFA’s decision-makers was inevitable.

“Now we have to have a look at how to act in the future to avoid such situations,” the president said, a day after FIFA’s ethics committee banned two executive committee members for one to three years over bribery or misconduct.

Prince Ali, who has served 11 years as Jordan Football Association president and 10 years as head of its West Asian equivalent which groups 13 countries including Iran, singled out divisions as a major challenge in Asia.

“We have seen in the past period that there had been a lot of divisions among the continent and therefore we want to unite the continent rather than having it remain as is,” he said.

“It is the largest continent in the world, it has a lot to offer and we are really developing now in terms of football,” added the prince, who is a career military man and husband of former CNN correspondent Rym Brahimi.

He focused on football’s appeal as a uniting force.

“Football is not just a sport, obviously it unites people within the countries but also as a region and we want to get the feeling that Asia is united in all senses of the word.”

AFC president Mohamed bin Hammam is also up for re-election at the Congress, although he is widely expected to keep the job.