Jordan’s Prince Ali makes new call for FIFA change
AFC would back any China World Cup bid: Soosay Best of the Rest
AMMAN, May 3, (Agencies): FIFA vice president Prince Ali bin al Hussein on Sunday made a new call for Sepp Blatter, the head of football’s governing body, to be kicked out of office.
The Jordanian royal said that FIFA has to be “more open, more transparent” as he sought votes for an election on May 30. Blatter, 79, is strong favourite to win a fifth term at the head of the world’s most powerful sporting federation but faces an unprecedented challenge from Prince Ali and two other candidates.
The prince, 39, said too much power is concentrated in committees which meet in Zurich and there should be more discussion in the regions.
“Football is a difficult sport to maintain, you always need help. FIFA can help go forward if we re-look at how we do things. We have to be more open, more transparent in how we do things,” he said at the start of the Soccerex Asia exhibition in Jordan.
“You can`t Zurich.”
“As wonderful as football is and as popular as it is in the world, unfortunately, the reputation of FIFA is not there at all,” the prince added, referring to scandals that have hit the body over awarding the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.
The prince, Dutch Football Association chief Michael van Praag and former Portugal football star Luis Figo are all standing against Blatter who has received strong backing from nearly every regional confederation execept Europe’s UEFA.
Meanwhile, Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, the head of the Jordan FA and currently Asia’s own vice-president on the FIFA
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from executive committee, directed his criticism at AFC president Shaikh Salman of Bahrain but said apart from UEFA, the other confederations were guilty of the same thing.
Shaikh Salman refused to allow Portugal’s Luis Figo, Michael van Praag of the Netherlands and Prince Ali the opportunity to speak at last week’s AFC Congress in Manama, the capital of Bahrain.
“Our continent is about dignity and respect. Hospitality is also crucial for us, and for me it was shocking that Europe (UEFA) invited us all to take the stage but when others came to my continent they were not given that chance,” Ali told reporters at the Asian Soccerex Forum in Jordan.
“It was their congress but to me it was shocking. Obviously you have the incumbent (Blatter) and the other candidates there,” he added.
“But if I wasn’t running myself, I would have made sure that you’d get all four candidates on the stage with the chance to ask them questions and get to know what their programmes are, and to see where we can benefit and base our decisions on that.
“Unfortunately that was not the case, not even in my own confederation. Obviously it was not just Asia but in other confederations as well, apart from UEFA.
“I am concerned that if that attitude takes place at the top level of football, what does that mean for national associations themselves?
“On the one hand you say as a national association you have to be democratic but you don’t apply it to the top level of football? And that’s a big problem I see.”
Ali continued: “The reasoning is that the incumbent was speaking only as the president of FIFA and not campaigning when we could all pretty much see that there was some campaigning going on.”
The Jordanian is an unusual position with less than a month to go before FIFA’s 209 delegates vote on whether to sanction a fifth term of office for Blatter, as expected, or decide to end his 17-year reign.
Unless Ali wins the presidency, he will leave the FIFA executive committee after four years because his seat is being taken by Shaikh Salman.
The pair were once closely allied but Shaikh Salman declared in January that the AFC was going to support Blatter, although not every Asian federation is expected to do so.
In related story, China’s hopes of one day hosting a World Cup would receive the full backing of Asia’s governing body more than 25 years after the idea was first mooted, according to AFC general secre- tary Alex Soosay.
Speaking in an interview with Reuters, the Malaysian administrator also said that the region deserved more spots at the finals and that the image of Asian soccer was recovering after years of suffering under its previous leadership.
Soosay, talking after this week’s Asian Football Confederation Congress in Bahrain, said that China had the potential to host the World Cup, an idea first proposed by former FIFA president Joao Havelange in the late 1980s.
“China has had a bit of a pitfall here and there, domestically they were hit by corruption but now they are back on track,” Soosay said.
“At the Asian Cup this year they were a force to be reckoned with (after reaching the quarter-finals). China has every- Ferdinand’s wife dies: The wife of Queens Park Rangers defender Rio Ferdinand has died aged 34 following a short battle with cancer.
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“She was a fantastic, loving mother to our three beautiful children,” Ferdinand said of his wife of six years. “She will be missed as a wife, sister, aunt, daughter and granddaughter. She will live on in our memory, as a guide and inspiration.” (AP) Dinamo Zagreb secure title: Dinamo Zagreb on Saturday secured their 10th consecutive Croatian title by thrashing hosts Split 5-1.
With four games remaining, Dinamo now have 80 points, 15 points more than second-placed Rijeka.
Dinamo, coached by Zoran Mamic, have now won 17 Croatian championships since the former Yugoslav republic’s independence in 1991.(AFP) thing a World Cup should offer.
“They have the facilities, they have the infrastructure, they have the economy. So I don’t think you can deny China.
“China hosted the Asian Cup in 2004 and it was a remarkable event. I believe they have the potential.
“Asia has always backed China. Hopefully, the prospect of hosting a World Cup will further propel Chinese football.”
Asia previously hosted the 2002 World 1 man dead in Poland riot: A man died after being hit by a rubber bullet and 14 police officers were injured in clashes that erupted Saturday during a Polish league football match in the south of the country.
Supporters of the local Concordia Knurow team stormed onto the pitch during the first half against Ruch Radzionkow, with the home team trailing 4-1.
A 27-year-old man was struck by a rubber bullet on the neck when police fired at the attackers. More rioting broke out around the hospital, where the man was pronounced dead.(AP) Moore completes double: Jockey Ryan Moore completed a double of British classic wins this weekend by riding Legatissimo to victory in the 1,000 Guineas on Sunday.
A day after winning the 2,000 Guineas — a race for colts — over the same course at Newmarket, Moore bided his time on Legatissimo before she came from the back of the field at halfway to overhaul favorite Lucinda. The winning margin in the fillies classic was three-quarters of a length. (AP) Cup, jointly hosted by Japan and South Korea, with the 2022 tournament set to be held in Qatar.
The 2019 FIFA Congress will decide where the 2026 tournament will take place with the 2023 Congress selecting the host of the subsequent tournament four years later.
With the regional rotation policy now scrapped, it is possible that the World Cup could return to Asia sooner than it might have done under previous rules.