Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa said he didn’t want to allow the organisation to lapse back into “chaos” as he announced a bid for re-election next year. Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa will seek a fresh four-year term as Asian Football Confederation president AFP/FABRICE COFFRINI The Bahraini royal first took the reins in 2013 when the Asian body was still reeling from a corruption scandal which saw his predecessor, Mohamed bin Hammam, banned from football for life. At the AFC Congress next April, Sheikh Salman could face a challenge from Saudi Arabia’s Adel Ezzat, head of a new regional bloc, the South West Asian Football Federation. “I am proud of what we have achieved in that time and I am not ready to leave this organisation into a state of chaos,” Sheikh Salman said in a statement. “We have all seen what the AFC was before, and we have seen what it looks like now and I hope that we can continue that progress.” Sheikh Salman was elected by a landslide in 2013 and completed the last two years of bin Hammam’s term, before being re-elected unopposed to a full, four-year term in 2015. His potential challenger, Ezzat, resigned as head of the Saudi football federation last month, saying he wanted to focus on the AFC elections. While Saudi Arabia has long been a marginal player in the game, the oil-rich kingdom – currently involved in a diplomatic row with 2022 World Cup hosts… [Read full story]
Leave a Reply