Singapore: Olympic Council of Asia President Shaikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah of Kuwait will seek re-election to the FIFA Council after the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) named him as one of eight candidates for the four spots available for the continent.
Shaikh Ahmad, who heads the Association of National Olympic committees and is an influential International Olympic Committee (IOC) member, currently has a FIFA Council seat, the term of which ends in May.
Kuwait are currently banned by both the IOC and FIFA for government interference in the running of the national sports associations.
The FIFA Council replaced the largely discredited Executive Committee as FIFA’s decision-making body under reforms instituted in the wake of the 2015 corruption scandal in soccer’s world governing body.
The four successful candidates at May’s AFC congress in Bahrain will represent Asia on the body along with Bahraini vice-president Shaikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, also the head of the AFC, and members from Japan and Malaysia.
The four spots include one reserved for women.
“The Asian Football Confederation has received the candidatures of eight candidates for the four places available to the AFC on the FIFA Council,” the AFC said in a statement.
Australian Moya Dodd, formerly a co-opted member of the old FIFA Executive Committee, will take on Mahfuza Ahkter of Bangladesh, Han Un-gyong of North Korea and Susan R.A. Shalabi of Palestine.
Chinese Football Association general secretary Zhang Jian, Mariano V. Araneta Jr of Philippines and South Korean football chief Chung Mong-gyu will vie with Shaikh Ahmad for the three other seats.
“The above list of candidates for the FIFA Council will be submitted to the FIFA General Secretariat in order for the FIFA Review Committee to carry out the eligibility check on each candidate,” the AFC added.
Last September, the AFC extraordinary congress, called to conduct the elections for the FIFA Council, was postponed over the disqualification of a Qatari candidate.
