Qatar Football Association backs Blatter over Prince Ali for FIFA post (JMD quoted in Doha News)

Posted: 08 Jan 2015 03:04 AM PST
FIFA headquarters
MCaviglia/Wikimedia
FIFA headquarters
An Arab contender has announced his intention to run against longtime FIFA President Sepp Blatter, but it appears he won’t have much support from the Gulf.
In several tweets on Tuesday, Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan, a FIFA vice-president, said that he was running for the top spot to bring about change:
I am seeking the presidency of FIFA because I believe it is time to shift the focus away from administrative controversy and back to sport.
— Ali Bin Al Hussein (@AliBinAlHussein) January 6, 2015
The world’s game deserves a world-class governing body — a service organisation and a model of ethics, transparency and good governance.
— Ali Bin Al Hussein (@AliBinAlHussein) January 6, 2015
The headlines should be about football, the beautiful sport, not about FIFA.
— Ali Bin Al Hussein (@AliBinAlHussein) January 6, 2015
Though Prince Ali has the support of many football organizations in Europe who are fed up with FIFA’s leadership, officials in Qatar and the rest of the GCC have said they will remain loyal to Blatter.
In an interview in Brazil yesterday, QFA President Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani said there was a consensus among the Asian confederation to support the 78-year-old Swiss official.
“I want to stress the strong relationship with Prince Ali, but reiterate that there is a question mark over nominating (him). We as QFA and through the AFC, emphasize our support for Blatter’s continuity,” Al Thani said, according to a transcript of the interview on QFA’s Facebook page.
Also yesterday, influential Kuwaiti Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah threw his support behind Blatter. Media reports quoted the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) president as saying of the 39-year-old Prince Ali:
“If he takes my advice, I think it is too early for him. I was speaking for Kuwait. We will support Blatter very strongly and we will not allow anyone to challenge him.”

Keeping the World Cup

Speaking to Doha News, MidEast Soccer’s James Dorsey said several Arab countries are backing Blatter for political reasons.
Qatar World Cup bid celebration, 2010.
Sean Knoflick/Flickr
Qatar World Cup bid celebration, 2010.
FIFA’s current president, for example, has been a longtime champion of Qatar’s right to host the 2022 World Cup, he said:
“One would assume that QFA wouldn’t want to turn on Blatter at a time that they need him in Qatar’s battle to keep its World Cup hosting rights. Qatar will not be the only Middle Eastern association that is likely to vote for Blatter rather than one of their own.
Skeikh Ahmed of Kuwait has already said that he won’t allow anyone to undermine Blatter. It’s politics and vested interests – not regional solidarity or what would be best for FIFA – that dictates votes.”
Frenchman Jerome Champagne has also said he will run against Blatter.
Any other contenders must announce their intentions before the end of this month. The elections is scheduled to be held on May 29.
Thoughts?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Intellectual honesty in Israel & Palestine produces radically different outcomes

Image
  Just published! By James M. Dorsey To watch a video version of this story or listen to an audio podcast click here . Thank you for your support and loyalty. Intellectual honesty is a rare commodity in the divide between Israelis and Palestinians. It is even rarer with the rise of Jewish ultra-nationalism and a generation of Israelis and Palestinians nurtured on prejudiced, biased, and often supremacist perceptions of the other. The irony is that historically, it was far-right militants, and currently, it is fringe left-wing intellectuals who displayed intellectual honesty, even if their conclusions differ radically. With few exceptions, intellectual honesty has long been lost on the Israeli right and left. What intellectual honesty survives is posited in fringe pockets of the left that propagate a paradigm cultural change on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide that goes against the grain of mainstream Israeli and Palestinian thinking and, in today’s fog of war,...
Read more

Pakistan caught in the middle as China’s OBOR becomes Saudi-Iranian-Indian battleground

Image
By James M. Dorsey Pakistani General Raheel Sharif walked into a hornet’s nest when he stepped off a private jet in Riyadh two weeks ago to take command of a Saudi-led, 41-nation military alliance. Things have gone from bad to worse since. General Shareef had barely landed when Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman dashed the Pakistani’s hopes to include Iran in the alliance that nominally was created to fight terrorism rather than confront Iran. The general’s hopes were designed to balance Pakistan’s close alliance with Saudia Arabia with the fact that it shares a volatile border with Iran and is home to the world’s second largest Shiite Muslim community. General Sharif’s ambition had already been rendered Mission Impossible before he landed with Saudi Arabia charging that Iran constitutes the world’s foremost terrorist threat . In a recent interview with the Saudi-owned Middle East Broadcasting television network, Prince Mohammed, who also serves a...
Read more

Israeli & Palestinian war crimes? Yes. Genocide? Maybe. A talk with Omer Bartov

Image
  To watch a video version of this story on YouTube please click  here. An audio podcast is available on Soundcloud. Hi, and welcome to the Turbulent World with me James M. Dorsey, as your host. Words matter. No more so than in legal settings. Genocide is the word most associated with Israel's more than one-month-long assault on Gaza. In response to the October 7 Hamas attack against Israel, in which at least 1,200, mostly civilian, Israelis were killed. Genocide and Holocaust scholars, including those who believe that Israel has and is committing war crimes in its assault are divided about whether Israeli actions amount to genocide. Even so, they warn that Israeli actions could lead to genocide, if it not already has. What is certain is that optics streaming out of Gaza of the destruction and the plight of innocent Palestinian civilians, including large numbers of children and babies, explain the popular use of the term genocide when discussing the Israeli assa...
Read more