ASIA IS DIVIDED

Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah has called for an united show of Asian solidarity as a partition of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) seems imminent in the run-up to Friday’s AFC Congress in Kuala Lumpur.

“The division of the Asian football family saddens me very much. The situation is very serious and there will be global sporting repercussions to the present disunited stand in Asia,” said the president of the Kuwait Football Association.

Up for grabs on Friday: The post of FIFA Executive Committee (West Asia) with two Arab candidates, Mohamed Bin Hammam of Qatar and Bahraini Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, once claimed to be friends, now engaged in an unsporting war of words that’s almost dismembering the AFC.

Sheikh Ahmad, who has been one of Hammam’s harshest critics, lashed out at the Qatari businessman’s “one-man show” in running the AFC.

“The AFC leadership is a team job, not a one-man show, and we have to work with 46 team players for an united football organisation,” he said.

“For solidarity, there must be fairness in decision-making. Procedures must be done in a justified way and they must be respected by the majority, if not everyone.

“Never in the history of Asian football have I seen such a major division with so much unhappiness within the Asian football family.”

In the top-notch international football-arena for close to two decades, Sheikh Ahmad called on Asian delegates to remember the “important values of football” and added: “Football is a universal sport based on the fundamental principles of discipline and respect for opponents...and the spirit of fair competitiveness and rivalry.”

He said Kuwait had “the full rights to vote on Friday” although the AFC ad-hoc Legal Committee deemed that it did not recognise the temporary committee that is currently running its football affairs.

FIFA, however, clarified that the Kuwait Football Association was recognised by FIFA after a suspension it was under for political interference was provisionally lifted, and it had full voting rights.

Sheikh said that Kuwait’s legitimacy showed when it was allowed to vote at the 2007 AFC Congress and at the FIFA Congress last year.

“Any unfair procedures against Kuwait now will never be accepted,” he warned. “We’ll follow any the legal procedures at the AFC Congress...and I’ll fight for Kuwait’s rights (to vote) until my last breath.”

His vote on Friday is crystal clear. He favoured Sheikh Salman, the Bahrain Football Association president, who is also a member of the Bahraini royal family.

“In the midst of a divided Asia, I support Sheikh Salman. But whoever wins, I will work with him for the betterment of Asian football,” he said.

“We must mend the wounds and bring back the long-lost solidarity sporting spirit in the AFC.”