GOA: Asia’s top football officials rebelled and delivered a major snub to FIFA on Tuesday, forcing the postponement of an election for three spots on the world body’s new governing Council in a row over the disqualification of a Qatari candidate.

With FIFA President Gianni Infantino watching on, delegates to an Asian Football Confederation (AFC) extraordinary congress, which had been called to conduct the election at a luxury hotel in Goa, voted down the agenda.

Forty two of the 44 members who had voting rights at Tuesday’s meeting raised a “No” card when AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa called for the agenda of the meeting to be passed. The AFC said the congress lasted only 27 minutes.

“This has been an eventful morning - and an eventful few weeks,” Shaikh Salman, who stood against Infantino in FIFA polls in February, told the gathering. “But the Congress has spoken with one voice and that has been clear for us all to see.

“FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, I am not sure if you have been at a shorter Congress but I think you can see the strength of opinion in the room.”

Various delegates said that the agenda was rejected because a senior official from Qatar, hosts of the 2022 World Cup, had been barred from standing for the FIFA Council.

Scandal-plagued FIFA’s ethics committee last month recommended a two-and-a-half-year ban for Saoud Al-Mohannadi, vice-president of the Qatar Football Association, for refusing to cooperate with a corruption investigation.

Mohannadi denies any wrongdoing and had initially been cleared to stand, before the AFC announced late on Sunday that he’d been ruled out of the process by FIFA, leaving insufficient time for new candidates to join the six remaining in the field.

FIFA has not revealed the subject of the corruption inquiry, but it is not connected with allegations related to Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 World Cup.

Only Singapore voted in favor of the agenda. The country’s candidate, Zainudin Nordin, was set to benefit from his Qatari opponent being excluded.

The three elected officials were to join existing AFC members from Japan, Kuwait and Malaysia, as well as Sheikh Salman on the 37-member FIFA Council.

‘Clear message’

“Today the AFC and Asian football has shown solidarity and unity. The message has been clear to everyone both inside and outside Asia,” Sheikh Salman told an executive committee meeting, according to an AFC statement.

“Football in Asia is united and that is down to you — the members — and I thank you for sending out such a strong message that we stand united.”

The AFC later held an emergency executive committee meeting, where Chinese candidate Zhang Jian was added to the committee until the next extraordinary congress.

The AFC will set a new date for an extraordinary congress in consultation with FIFA, AFC secretary general Windsor John said.

“The executive committee just decided that we will convene a new extraordinary congress after we have checked all the timelines with FIFA and with our statutes,” he said.

According to officials, it will be months before another congress is held, with the AFC needing to give at least 30 days’ notice and FIFA also taking up to four months to approve candidates.

Praful Patel, president of the All India Football Federation, said he wished the election had been handled differently.

“It was not the right way to go about things. I wish this process had been done much earlier,” Patel, an AFC vice-president told reporters.

“There were a lot of people who hoped to file their own nominations. Whether somebody was barred or banned, I wish this process had been done earlier.

“The others could have also had the opportunity to stand and that’s why it got cancelled. It’s only fair that elections take place in a way that is fair and just.”

FIFA had set a Sept 30 deadline for elections to the Council, which replaces the Executive Committee under reforms instituted in the wake of the corruption scandal which has engulfed football’s world governing body over the last 16 months.

‘Work ahead’

“I think it’s democracy and we need to look forwards anyway,” Infantino said. “There’s still a lot of work ahead.”

Infantino has promised a clean-up of FIFA after a series of corruption scandals and bribery allegations plunged the body into crisis and left senior officials including ex-president Sepp Blatter banned from football.

Sheikh Salman said stalling the election wasn’t designed to delay any reform agenda.

“There is no argument between us and FIFA,” Sheikh Salman said. “I think we will be the first supporters of the FIFA’s reforms ... but we need to be fair and just as well.”

Six candidates from Asia, including China and North Korea, were standing for three seats on the FIFA Council.

Three male candidates — Zhang, the Chinese football association secretary general, Iran’s Ali Kafashian Naeni and Nordin — were set to compete for two of the seats in Tuesday’s vote.

Former Australian footballer Moya Dodd, formerly a co-opted member of the old FIFA Executive Committee, was slated to take on Mahfuza Ahkter of Bangladesh and Han Un-Gyong of North Korea for AFC’s designated female representative.

As a candidate I was ready, I am ready whether it’s today, tomorrow, next week or next year,” Dodd, the chairwoman of the FIFA task force for women’s football, said.

“It’s a little disappointing I guess. It’s like arriving to play your grand final and then the game gets rescheduled to another day.

“But we need to do it when the membership is comfortable to proceed and that wasn’t today.”

Published in Dawn September 28th, 2016