On Wednesday, the Asian Football Confederation will renew the recommendation of its Bahraini president, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, for a new term that extends until 2027 during the thirty-third general assembly hosted by the Bahraini capital, Manama, in the first physical meeting since the Corona virus crisis, and will also announce Saudi Arabia’s hosting of the 2027 Asian Cup.
Bin Ibrahim (57 years old) was elected in 2013 as president to complete the remaining two years of the term of former Qatari President Mohammed bin Hammam.
In 2013, the Bahraini defeated the former president of the UAE Federation, Youssef Al-Sarkal, and was re-elected by acclamation in 2015 for a four-year term. It was expected that Emirati Mohammed Khalfan Al-Rumaithi and Qatari Saud Al-Mohannadi would compete in 2019, before they announced their withdrawal.
It is noteworthy that Ben Brahim lost the race for the presidency of the International Federation “FIFA” to its current president, Swiss Gianni Infantino, on February 26, 2016, with a score of 115-88 votes.
The owner of the “United Asia” slogan worked to round corners and avoid electoral battles, overcoming many bumps such as the repercussions of the health crisis resulting from the Corona virus, when he succeeded in completing the decisive rounds of the Champions League competition in late 2020 in Doha.
“We are proud of the bright stations of all the football federations that contributed to the success of the competitions during the Corona crisis, despite the great challenges,” the president of the Confederation said.
It is expected that the Congress will announce Saudi Arabia’s hosting of the 2027 Asian Cup, with its file remaining alone in the race following the withdrawal of Uzbekistan, Iran and India, while Qatar was excluded because it hosted the next edition in early 2024, and its first hosting will be in the finals that began in 1956.
At the forefront of the scene are the elections for the representatives of the Asian continent in the International Federation Council (FIFA), following seven candidates ran for five seats, and five candidates for a women’s seat from among the members of the executive office of the continental federation.
The Qatari Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani, the Saudi Yasser Al-Mishal, the Chinese Du Gaucai, the Japanese Kozo Tashima, the South Korean Mong Gyu-chung, the Malaysian Datuk Haji Hamdin bin Haji Muhammad Amin, and the Filipino Mariano Araneta, in addition to 5 members, were nominated for the five reserved seats. Among the women, one of them is also a member of the “FIFA” Council, and they are the Palestinian Susan Al Shalabi (West Asia), the Bengali Mahfouz More Kiron (South), Kanya Keumani from Laos (ASEAN), Liu Shifang (Chinese Taipei), and the North Korean Han Eun Gyeong (East), while the nominations for the Central Asia region were absent.
While the elections of four vice-presidents were decided by acclamation, namely, the Lebanese Hashem Haidar (West Asia), the Bhutanese Eugene Tsichop (south), Zaw Zaw from Myanmar (ASEAN), and the Mongolian Ghanbaatar Amgalanbaatar (East), all eyes are on the competition in the central region between the Iranian Mahdi Taj, and the Kyrgyz Dastanbek Konukbaev.
On Tuesday, the Confederation announced the final list of the 11 executive office candidates to elect 9 members, who are: Jordanian Louay Omeish, Kuwaiti Abdullah Al-Shaheen, and Emirati Abdullah Al-Junaibi for West Asia, Turkmen Arslan Inazarov and Uzbek Ravshan Irmatov for the middle, and Indian Shaji Pravakaran and Maldivian Bassam Adel Jalil. Nepalese Pankaj Bikram Nimbang for the south, Australian Chris Nikko and Thai Sumyot Bombanmung for ASEAN, and Fuk Kai Chan Eric from Hong Kong for the east.
