Caution needed in AIFF’s Saudi approach
eration Council (GCC) led by Saudi Arabia, as well as Jordan.
In Saudi Arabia’s quest for greater power in AFC, the political tint in SWAFF’s creation couldn’t have been missed. Secondly, the formation of SWAFF itself would have been seen as a challenge to AFC’s authority. However, later that month, the Asian football governing body stepped back from its stance.
AFC President Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, who belongs to the Bahraini royal family that has close ties with the Saudi royals, met Ezzat in Jeddah and gave the SWAFF chief the go-ahead for the new confederation on the condition that it would not impact the five existing AFC zonal bodies.
Yet, there is no mistaking that a football organisation, backed by powerful royal families from almost all GCC countries and essentially borne out of a geopolitical conflict, can have serious repercussions on Asian football administration as Ezzat aims to piggyback it to the sport’s biggest job in the continent.
INDIAN INVOLVEMENT
In its general assembly in August, SWAFF elected AIFF senior official as its vice-president (south). The AIFF was promised an annual grant of $500,000 (~3.6 crore) by SWAFF, It isn’t a giant figure, given AIFF’s annual budget in 2017-18 was ~69.92 crore.
With Ezzat running for the AFC top job next year, it is hardly anyone’s guess as to where the allegiance of AIFF and other countries part of this association lie. During the vote for the 2026 World Cup hosting rights, India had followed Saudi Arabia and backed the joint bid of USA, Mexico and Canada.
However, in deciding to be a part of SWAFF, the AIFF has brought India in the middle of an AFC power struggle.
More importantly, by being part of what is, for all purposes, an anti-Qatar bloc, it has deviated from the central government’s neutral stance in the dispute between Qatar and other GCC countries. When the dispute escalated in 2017, India had refused to take sides, instead calling for ‘constructive dialogue and peaceful negotiations’ between the GCC countries.
In such a backdrop, the longterm cost of AIFF’s move may far outweigh the short-term benefits it promises to bring.