Asian soccer will achieve its goals, says Velappan

Dato Peter Velappan smiles when he remembers that he was once referred to as the 'Man haunted by Asian Football.'

"How true" he says.

For 24 years Velappan has been running all over the continent trying to increase the popularity of football which was has not been easy, considering the sport has to compete with games cricket, sumo wrestling, baseball, basketball and hockey.

Velappan is the Secretary General of the Asian Football Confederation, a post he has held since 1978.

Velappan, who worked with former AFC presidents Dato Hamzeh and Sultan Ahmed Shah, was asked how he expects the new era under newly elected President Mohammed bin Hammam of Qatar to develop.

"I really appreciate Mohammed bin Hammam" says Velappan. "He is very dynamic, sociable and sharing and I am confident that he will take Asian Football a few steps up, and in the right time too, as Korea and Japan did Asia proud when hosting the last World Cup.

They proved to the world Asia's ability to organise such a big event successfully. The World Cup in Asia was a dream and the Asians succeeded in realising that dream. Now we can assure the world that countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, China and others can achieve the same success".

That's why our slogan is 'The Future is Asia.'

"In the last twenty years, the Asian game has improved a great deal. The infrastructure has improved while professionalism has changed the mentality of players. All these are encouraging signs. With 60 per cent of the world's population in Asia, we can't afford to go wrong and I am confident that we will be able to achieve our goals," Velappan added confidently.

About future plans Velappan said: "A meeting has been originally scheduled for September 16-17 in Dubai between Bin Hammam, his vice-presidents and representatives of the marketing company, but that meeting was postponed to be held next month in Doha during the Asian Under 20 Championship.

"The meeting was for the president to speak about his dreams, his plans and his vision for the future and for the others to discuss the means of achieving such ambition," he said.

"I have some proposals to submit to the meeting regarding dividing Asia into three categories based on the capabilities of each of our 45 members. For example we are asking for five seats in the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

"We should be sure that we will have five countries who can represent us honourably. It depends upon the population, number of players and the country's football traditions. I believe the first category can include: Korea, China, Japan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan although the latter will have to change a lot of things,"Velappan explained.

Velappan is optimistic that the performances of Korea and Japan in the last World Cup will increase their chances of having five seats in 2006.

Cheating in the age-group championship has been a major problem. What solutions do the AFC have to end it?

"Last year we suspended five national associations for this reason. We want to create a level playing field for all teams. At the current Under 17 Championship in the UAE, we are using x-rays to determine the ages of any suspect players. We are heartened by the cooperation from the national associations," Velappan said.

Five players have been suspended from Yemen for failing to attend the examinations.

"Oman, the defending champions, Iran, the beaten finalists, Bangladesh and Thailand have all been suspended by the AFC and fined $10000 each for fielding overage players while Nepal was suspended for failing to cooperate and to undergo the examinations.

Why were Yemen not barred?

"We believe that Yemen has been punished enough with the barring of those players who did not attend the x-ray examination as requested," he said.

Velappan denied that there is a conflict between the AFC and the CAF (African Football Confederation) confirming that "the AFC welcomes any opportunity to work with all confederations. Asian has no conflict with the CAF."

Velappan, a Malaysian, was accused of 'selling' his former boss and his King, Sultan Ahmed Shah, the former President of the AFC and the former King of Malaysia, in order to keep his job as AFC secretary general with bin Hammam and keep the headquarters of the AFC in Kuala Lumpur.
Velappan denied the accusations vehemently.

"The Asian football was really founded and nursed like a child by Malaysia. The AFC was a brain child of Tengku Abdul Rahman, who was the Prime Minister of Malaysia and the true father of the AFC. He was elected the first president of the AFC and continued in office for 24 years.

"Akbari from Iran took over for a brief period before Dato Hamzeh, another Malaysian, was elected president for 16 years to be followed by his countryman Sultan Ahmed Shah in 1988 for 14 years.

"Kuala Lumpur has become the home of Asian Football. We have a wonderful headquarters and like FIFA in Zurich, Kuala Lumpur will be the permanent home for the AFC premises. This is good for stability, continuity and also solidarity as Malaysia is in the middle of the continent.

"Regarding my job, I assure you I don't need a job to serve football. Actually I was thinking of retiring. I had submitted my resignation to the AFC president, Sultan Ahmed Shah in 1998 but the members of the AFC Executive Board refused to accept it and asked me to continue.

"I have spent 45 years serving football whether in the Malaysian FA, the AFC or FIFA and I have no personal interest. I was loyal to Sultan Ahmed Shah when he was president of the AFC and I deny totally any election compromises that occurred to betray Sultan Shah and to guarantee my job with bin Hammam," Velappan confirmed.

Velappan disclosed that he was approached by Sepp Blatter, the President of FIFA, in 1998 to be appointed as Secretary General of FIFA but he did not accept the offer because of disagreement between himself and Blatter regarding aspects of the organisation and authority offered to the secretary general.