Prince Ali: Who is the man after FIFA's top job?

Barny 19:21 09/01/2015
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  • Head-to-head: Prince Ali (r) is seen as a viable replacement for Sepp Blatter.

    Asian football expert John Duerden looks at the task ahead for Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein if he is to succeed Sepp Blatter as FIFA president.

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    The shadow of Mohammed Bin Hammam is getting smaller and fainter but can still be seen hanging over Asian football. The Qatari achieved much in nine years in the AFC's top job but that mattered little in the end. In March 2011, he announced his challenge to Sepp Blatter for the election to decide the next FIFA president. Three months later and his time in football was over. Maybe one day his name will not be preceded by 'disgraced', but not yet.

    It is a lesson not lost on Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein and makes this week's announcement that he will step into the ring with the deadly Swiss Supremo for May's election even braver. Bin Hammam showed what can happen to those who stick their neck out, even if some of his activities gave opponents more to work with than they will find to be the case with the boss of the Jordan FA.

    Al Hussein is no acolyte of the former AFC chief who, both famously and surprisingly, defeated Chung Mong-joon, Bin Hamman's ally, in January 2011 to take the South Korean's post as FIFA Vice-President and a seat on the organisation's powerful EXCO Committee.

    Since then, he has built a reputation as a reformer during a time when FIFA has shown itself badly in need of change. Al Hussein has recorded positive, practical and meaningful achievements in his short time in world football, more than can be said for some of his longer-serving colleagues.

    Some of those reveal the kind of football man he is. The hijab, a traditional muslim head-covering garment worn by some women, became a football issue just a day after Al Hussein took his seat on FIFA's Executive Committee, with Iran’s women being banned from Olympic qualification in June 2011 after wearing hijabs in a game against Jordan. The Jordanian campaigned to have the ban overturned and was successful.

    “I am proud to make a difference in allowing women all over the world to play football,” he told me in a 2012 interview. “Asia took the lead and provided the main support for the move and it was great. And if you look at the Olympics for example, you can see that it has opened the door for many women.”

    He also launched his Asian Football Development Project, a non-profit organisaton that has made a real difference at grass roots level in poorer counties. 

    “My main focus is on football development. I want the best service not just for Asia but for the world. We have launched grassroots programmes in the Philippines, youth leagues in Chinese Taipei, and organised football for refugee children.  It is designed to respond to different needs.”

    As successful and as necessary as this project has become, it won't be enough to unseat the Swiss occupant. The question is: what will Prince Ali do and does he have a chance?

    It is generally accepted that UEFA, and its president Michel Platini, is behind the Jordanian. Back in May 2013, at the AFC Congress held to elect a new president, a poll won overwhelmingly by Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, the Frenchman and Al Hussein spent hours chatting on the verandah at the back of Kuala Lumpur's Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

    If Europe backs the new man and Africa sticks with the old, what about Asia? Here, the situation is more complex and not just because here, at least, Blatter is not seen in the black and white image that the European media often prefers.

    In November, I asked Shaikh Salman about rumours of a challenge to Blatter coming from Asia and the Bahraini looked over to Prince Ali sitting at the next table, and remarked that members of the AFC should stick to the decision it made in last June's Congress that supported the long-serving FIFA boss.

    At the same congress, the Bahraini defeated the Jordanian in pushing through a motion that gives the AFC presidency an automatic place on FIFA's Executive Committee. So far, since taking over as Asian football chief 20 months ago, what Shaikh Salman wants he tends to get, and he wants Blatter to continue.

    But then there is Sheikh Ahmad, the head of the Olympic Council of Asia and the Association of National Olympic Committees. The Kuwaiti could walk, unrecognised, down any continental street outside his homeland but is hugely influential in Asian sports politics, wined and dined by prime ministers and presidents alike. His support of Salman in the 2013 AFC presidential election helped to deliver a landslide victory. Sheikh Ahmad has been seen with Blatter on numerous occasions in recent months. Which way he goes could be crucial and the challenge from Jerome Champagne could also muddy the voters a little.

    Prince Ali needs a little momentum to give his campaign a kick-start. One head of a major Asian football federation told me last month that this May he will vote for the winner of the FIFA presidential election. The message is clear – for Prince Ali to have a chance of winning, he has to actually look like he has a chance of winning.

    It is in football's interest that he manages to do so.

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