DOHA: The Qatar Football Association (QFA) has announced its support for Bahrain’s HE Shaikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa for yet another term as AFC President at the General Assembly of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in Kuala Lumpur on 6 April.
Salman has been the AFC President since May 2013. His challenger and QFA VP Saud Abdul Aziz al-Mohannadi has backed out of the race as has Mohamed Khalfan al-Romaithi from the United Arab Emirates.
While Bahrain has been one of the vocal advocates for banning Qatar economically and in sports as well in Asia due to terrorism allegations, the FIFA World Cup will be held in the country in 2022.
As a result, Qatar’s importance is something Salman has apparently understood for which he visited the nation recently and met with QFA officials to extend an olive branch.
Al-Mohannadi stated: “Our position in the Qatar Football Association has been consistent and supportive of HE Sheikh Salman since he assumed the presidency of the Asian Football Confederation where I worked closely with him. As for Asian football, I and the Qatar Football Association in general, will continue to support HE Shaikh Salman bin Ibrahim in his role as president of the AFC and we are fully confident that he can lead Asia in the way required to power Asian football to a bright future.”
