Success for Qatar as Al Mohannadi finally wins FIFA Council seat
LONDON: Qatar has secured a place back at the top table of world football for the first time since the exit of Mohamed bin Hammam eight years ago.
Saoud Al Mohannadi, having taken a diplomatic step back from challenging for the presidency of the Asian Football Confederation, was elected as one of its seven members of the governing council of world federation FIFA.
Victory at last
Election represented victory in a lengthy fight for the Qatari whose first attempt to stand for FIFA Council had been blocked by an ethics commission suspension in 2016. This was later quashed by the FIFA appeal committee.
His eventual success now at AFC congress in its headquarters city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, also represented another major sports success for. Qatar’s success off the pitch followed the national team’s notable victories on it in defeating Saudi Arabia and hosts UAE in February on the way to winning the Asian Cup.
Absence from FIFA Council
The Gulf state lost its place on the governing body of FIFA in 2011 when Qatar’s bin Hammam, then the Asian president, was suspended over bribery allegations and subsequently banned from the game for muddling up his own bank account with that of the AFC – ethics breaches he has always denied.
The absence of Qatar from FIFA Council has always appeared an odd anomaly because of the country’s status as host of the 2022 World Cup.
Those finals have been a significant bone of contention in the infighting within the region with the Saudis working hard behind the scenes over the past two years to force their way into the corridors of power.
First, however, both their own candidate for the AFC presidency (Adel Ezzat) and then his ‘substitute’ from the UAE (Mohammed Khalfan Al Rumaithi) were forced to pull out when it became clear that the rest of Asia wanted no part of Gulf grumbles.
Al Khalifa returns as AFC president
Bahrain’s Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa was thus returned to the role of AFC president which he has held with increasing self-assurance since 2013. He was not present in Kuala Lumpur after the death of his mother last week but he had been certain long ago of unopposed re-election.
Sheikh Salman’s AFC leadership is accompanied automatically by a vice-presidency of FIFA to whose council he will be accompanied by Al Mohannadi, Du Zhaocai (China), Praful Patel (India), Kohzo Tashima (Japan), Mariano Araneta (Philippines) and, for the women’s slot, Mahfuza Akhter Kiron (Bangladesh).