New AFC president sets about reform as battle for change looms

Sepp Blatter and Sheikh Salman

By James M. Dorsey

A Singapore-based sports marketing company is at the center of a battle for the future of reform within world soccer days after the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), wracked by two years of scandal over ousted president Mohammed Bin Hammam’s management of the group, elected a new head to complete his term.

The newly elected president, Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, the president of the Bahrain Football Association, has little time to implement promised reforms aimed at ensuring transparency, accountability and good governance within the AFC. With less than two years before regularly scheduled presidential elections, Sheikh Salman has inherited an organization that has yet to prove its commitment to change.

“It’s a tough job. There is a lot of baggage but he has got to do it. It has to be transparency in deeds, not in words. Anything that is not transparent has to be implemented. Otherwise, he won’t make it in 2015,” a source close to the AFC said. The source was referring to the 2015 election when many expect a strong East Asian candidate to compete with hopefuls from the Middle East who dominated this week’s poll.

The difficulties Sheikh Salman, who is supported by world soccer body FIFA president Sepp Blatter, faces were evident at this week’s AFC Congress. The congress defeated a number of motions that would have obstructed reform and limited an evaluation of the group’s past financial and commercial management.

The defeat of the motions prompted Seamus O’Brien, the founder and CEO of Singapore-based World Sport Group (WSG), whose eight-year, $1 billion commercial rights agreement with the AFC is at the center of the group’s evaluation of the Bin Hammam era, to walk out of the congress, according to sources close to the AFC.

While pledging to work with WSG “towards enhancing marketing opportunities and develop the AFC brand further through this association,” Sheikh Salman also promised to report by the time FIFA holds its congress at the end of May on the status of the company’s agreement with the AFC.

Sources close to the AFC said that the litmus test of Sheikh Salman’s resolve would be whether he acts on the recommendations of an internal audit conducted last year by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) which include seeking legal counsel to ascertain whether the AFC can bring civil or criminal charges against Mr. Bin Hammam and whether it can renegotiate or cancel its controversial agreement with WSG. WSG last year initiated legal proceedings against this reporter in a bid to gain disclosure of sources.

The PwC report charged that Mr. Bin Hammam had used an AFC sundry account as his personal account and raised questions about the negotiation and terms of the WSG contract. Mr. Bin Hammam was last year banned for life from involvement in soccer by FIFA on charges of multiple conflicts of interest that contradicted the group’s code of ethics.

In a further disclosure of his plans, Sheikh Salman told Reuters that he would make creation of an AFC ethics committee a priority. "If there are any wrongdoings by some, there has to be a tool to have a watchdog on everybody including the president,” he said.

Beyond obstacles likely to be put up by associates of Mr. Bin Hammam within the AFC, Sheikh Salman will have to operate in an environment in which resistance to reform appears to be growing. In a statement that took many by surprise, Mr. Blatter declared at the congress in Kuala Lumpur: "This is the last term, not of office, but of reform."

The FIFA president appeared to be countering expectations that he would step down when his term ends in 2015 and reinforced doubts about his sincerity about reform despite the fact that more than a quarter of his executive committee as well as FIFA’s honorary president have been forced to resign or has been suspended because of allegations of wrong doing and corruption.

A recent study based on comparison to best practices established by the International Red Cross, the International Olympic Committee and the Canadian Soccer Association concluded that FIFA has so far failed to introduce a host of reforms, including enhanced financial governance and anti-corruption controls, a state-of-the-art anti-corruption compliance program, transformation of the ethics committee into an independent investigative body, establishment of a committee to determine executives’ and senior staffs’ salaries and benefits, creation of an election campaign finance system that bars private funding, and limitations on executives’ terms in office.”

Sheikh Salman has further been dogged by his failure to stand up for Bahraini national soccer team players who were arrested, publicly denounced, tortured and charged for taking part in anti-government demonstrations two years ago during a popular uprising that was brutally squashed.  The charges were later dropped under pressure from FIFA.

Sheikh Salman has evaded the issue arguing that football and politics are separate and that he had not violated FIFA or AFC rules, but has refused to address the moral issues involved. While restricted by being a member of a royal family that is dominated by hard liners, the fact that the government’s own inquiry into the suppression of the revolt admitted to wrongdoing by security forces, including torture, would have given him the leeway to be less categorical in addressing the issue.

In the latest twist, Sheikh Salman charged that an unidentified government was behind the accusations against him, that also included interference in the election on his behalf by the powerful-Kuwaiti led Olympic Council of Asia. He said an independent commission would be set up to look into political interference – a fact that is inevitable in the Gulf where soccer associations are controlled directly or indirectly by ruling royal families. “I don't think that I'd like in 2015 that we go through an election where we see all this happening,” Sheikh Salman said.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute of Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog

Asian soccer elects controversial Bahraini as president

By James M. Dorsey

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has elected a prominent Bahraini soccer executive to complete the term of ousted president Mohammed Bin Hammam in a poll that has been marred by allegations of interference and controversy over the candidates’ track records.

Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, head of the Bahrain Football Association, also defeated his Qatari rival, Hassan al-Thawadi, secretary general of the Gulf state’s 2022 World Cup organizing committee, 28 to 18 in an election to fill Mr. Bin Hammam’s seat on the executive committee of world soccer body FIFA. The disgraced Qatari national was banned for life from involvement in soccer by FIFA because of multiple violations of its code of ethics.

Sheikh Salman’s sweeping of 33 of the 46 AFC member association votes in the presidential election and his FIFA nomination constitute a stunning success for himself following his narrow defeat by Mr. Bin Hammam in a 2009 election for the FIFA seat as well as for his main supporter, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) headed by former Kuwaiti government minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah.

Sheikh Salman was the only candidate with no association with Mr. Bin Hammam and as a result the most likely to counter the significant influence the Qatari is still believed to wield in Asian soccer. . “The member of associations want to move on from the Mohammed Bin Hammam era,” a source close to the AFC said.

Sheikh Salman and Mr. Bin Hammam fought a bitter battle in 2009 for the FIFA executive committee seat and FIFA earlier this week warned AFC members of consorting with Mr. Bin Hammam who was accused by the OAC of campaigning on behalf of Mr. Al Serkal.

The Bahraini defeated Yousuf al Serkal of the United Arab Emirates, who unlike Sheikh Salman campaigned on a detailed platform that promised to address mismanagement of the AFC’s financial and commercial affairs revealed in an internal audit by PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC), and Thailand’s Worawi Makudi, who has successfully fended off past allegations of wrongdoing.

Mr. Al Serkal, who repeatedly denounced the OAC’s alleged interference in the election but has been silent on alleged campaigning by Mr. Bin Hammam on his behalf, garnered seven votes while Mr. Makudi won six. A fourth candidate, Hafez Ibrahim Al Medlej of Saudi Arabia, withdrew from the race on the eve of the election

Addressing the AFC Congress in Kuala Lumpur after his victory, Sheikh Salman promised change. "We need complete reforms, what we need is an AFC where decision makers are accountable. Clean up the past and turn the page for the future, restore transparency and integrity," he said in his most explicit remarks on the issue to date.

One litmus test of Sheikh Salman’s resolve will be whether he acts on the recommendations of the PwC report which include seeking legal counsel to ascertain whether the AFC can bring civil or criminal charges against Mr. Bin Hammam and whether it can renegotiate or cancel its controversial $1 billion master rights agreement with Singapore-based World Sport Group (WSG). WSG last year initiated legal proceedings against this reporter in a bid to gain disclosure of and intimidate sources and squash reporting.

Sources close to the AFC said Sheikh Salman would have to deliver. “He has no choice. The PwC report is one important test. His election could be a step forward. We’ll see what he does,” one source said. The sources said an ordinary AFC congress scheduled for Friday where he is expected to be pressed on the issue of reform would be Sheikh Salman’s first trial of fire.

The electoral results mirrors the balance of power in the Gulf where Bahrain and Kuwait are much more closely aligned with Saudi Arabia than Qatar that has been charting in foreign policy and projection of soft power a course of its own.

Sheikh Salman has been dogged by allegations that his office identified athletes, including players for the Bahrain nation soccer team, who were arrested for their participation in anti-government protests two years ago, tortured and charged. Sheikh Salman, a member of the Bahraini royal family, has refused to denounce the alleged abuses of human rights or to discuss the allegations against him. He has said that there was no reason to apologize to the players because it was an issue for politicians, not his soccer federation.

Bahraini human rights groups campaigned against his candidacy. Two of the players, brothers Mohammed and Alaa Hubail, accused Sheik Salman of abandoning them. They said they had received no apology or compensation from the Bahrain football association for the months of alleged mistreatment. “We are his responsibility and people like him should solve the problem, not ignore it. I have a lot of anger. I really miss playing in my team and for Bahrain,” Mohammed Hubail told The Associated Press.

A third player, Sayed Mohamed Adnan, speaking to Associated Press in a separate interview, said that "some people sadly want to end my career because of their belief that I am for this and against that. I love Bahrain. Playing in the national team of my country is a great honor. I would love to do it any time. I would do it without hesitation."

FIFA president Sepp Blatter described the Bahraini’s victory as “a historical day because it is a day of election, a day of election in your confederation that has been in a difficult situation during the past two years.” Acknowledging that Sheikh Salman would have limited time as he will only serve until 2015 when Mr. Bin Hammam’s term would have ended and new elections are due, Mr. Blatter added: “You have two more years to put your house in order."

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute of Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog

JMD on Xinhua: AFC to elect new chief in first post-Hammam election

AFC to elect new chief in first post-Hammam election

linhao

745 words

30 April 2013

05:49

Xinhua News Agency

XNEWS

English

Copyright 2013. Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.

KUALA LUMPUR, April 30 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) this week is set to elect its new chief, who will have an uphill battle to restore the Asian football governing body' s tarnished image and reputation left by its disgraced former boss, Mohamed Bin Hammam.

Almost all candidates have promised stern actions against corruption, more transparency and better governance for the AFC in the first poll in the post-Hammam era.

Bahrain Football Association chief Shaikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, backed by Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) President Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad AL-Sabah, is widely seen as a frontrunner for the presidential race in the run-up to the AFC Extraordinary Congress to be held in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

He is competing with other two candidates from the Middle East -- United Arab Emirate Football chief Yousuf Al Serkal and Hafez Ibrahim Al Medlej from Saudi Arabia, as well as Thai FIFA Executive Committee member Worawi Makudi, for the AFC presidency.

Shaikh Salman is also running against Hassan Al Thawadi, a less known figure who led Qatar in winning the 2022 FIFA World Cup bid, for the FIFA executive committee seat.

Shaikh Salman is making good use of his narrow defeat in 2009 by Hammam in the election of FIFA Exco seat to position himself as a rival against the Qatari, who was banned by FIFA for life for bribery during the FIFA presidential race in 2011.

Shaikh Salman was reported as saying that he was confident to secure a two-third majority by winning 31 votes out of AFC' s 46 member associations.

He has promised a series of efforts to clean up AFC' s reputation.

However, Shaikh Salman' s own reputation is far from intact.

He is under increasing criticism recently for his role as football association chief and member of the royal family in human right abuses against players during the Bahrain' s crackdown on anti-government protest in 2011. He is also related to votes-buying allegations during the FIFA seat election in 2009.

Shaikh Salman has denied any wrongdoings.

UAE' s Al Serkal is another presidential hopeful, who publicly complains OCA' s

"interference" in the election.

Makudi is largely discredited for being a close ally to Hammam, while Hafez Ibrahim was reported earlier that he would pull out of the race in last minute before the AFC Congress.

A tight race may further rift the association. Caretaker chief Zhang Jilong has consistently called for unity.

The new AFC president will complete the Bin Hammam' s remaining two-year tenure before facing another election in 2015, casting doubt on whether he would have enough time to complete any major reforms.

James M. Dorsey, a football blogger and senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said most presidential candidates do not have a real reform agenda.

"Al-Serkal is the only candidate that has laid out a program that addresses the fundamental problems wracking the AFC, but he lacks a track record of pushing for reform," he told Xinhua.

Dorsey said AFC has not even started to recover from Hammam' s scandals.

In a letter disclosed by media before the AFC Congress, AFC general secretary Alex Soosay warned AFC' s member associations against any kind of bribery, conflicts of interests during the elections.

In the past two years, Acting AFC president Zhong Jilong, who took the rein after Hammam was banned, has tried hard to turn the regional football governing body around and successfully thwarted an attempted come-back by Hammam with the help of FIFA.

During the last AFC Executive Committee meeting his chaired as AFC chief in March, Zhang urged exco members to "restore AFC back to its health and glory" while serve as "shining examples of honesty, integrity, and transparency."

Zhang was once considered the leading figure for the presidential job, but announced that he would step aside before the nomination deadline.

Dorsey said the Chinese tried to confront AFC' s major problems, but didn' t have the leverage to take on vested interests as acting president.

"The presidential election is either not going to make a difference or could worsen things for the AFC. A defeat of Sheikh Salman by Qatar' s Hassan al-Thawadi in the battle for the FIFA Exco seat would be a step, but only a step forward," Dorsey said.

AFC election marred by interference allegations and candidates’ track records

By James M. Dorsey

Next week’s Asian Football Confederation (AFC) presidential elections designed to elect a leader to clean up two years of alleged financial mismanagement and unethical business conduct and polish the group’s tarnished image are increasingly marred by doubts that real reform is on the horizon, allegations of interference in the poll and controversy over the candidates’ track record.

The marring comes against a background of the AFC’s failure, despite efforts by reformers, to project sincerity in achieving transparency and accountability after its president, Qatari national Mohammed Bin Hammam, was banned for life from involvement in soccer because of unethical conduct in his management of the group’s finances and business affairs.

The group has failed so far to follow up on an internal PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) that almost a year ago recommended possible legal action against Mr. Bin Hammam and called for a review if not cancellation of the AFC’s foremost $1 billion contract to commercialize its rights.

The impression of lack of sincerity is cemented by the allegations of political interference and fears of bribery in the campaign of some candidates, a majority of which are tainted by their past association with Mr. Bin Hammam, as well as past allegations of wrongdoing as in the case of Worawi Makdudi of Thailand which he has successfully refuted and in Sheikh Salman’s failed 2009 election campaign in which he was defeated by Mr. Bin Hammam.

Sheikh Salman faces moreover assertions that his office identified athletes, including players for the Bahrain nation soccer team, who were arrested for their participation in anti-government protests, tortured and charged. Sheikh Salman has also been criticized for the fact that he has refused to denounce these alleged abuses of human rights.

The allegations of interference in the election are bolstered by the fact that three of the four candidates – Yousuf al Serkal of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa and Hafez Al Medlej of Saudi Arabia – hail from the Middle East. Alliances and active support for the front runners, Sheikh Salman and Mr. Al Serkal, mirror the political line-up of Gulf states.

Kuwait publicly backs the Bahraini candidate, a reflection of the two countries frequent policy alignment with Saudi Arabia, versus the perceived Qatari backing for Mr. Al Serkal that groups the two states who often follow a more independent course. 

Mr. Al Medlej, who has hinted that he may withdraw at the last minute, does not seem to have significant backing even from his own government. While his Gulf competitors were on the campaign trail in private planes, Mr. Medlej said he only recently had money for his campaign deposited in his account.

Besides campaigning for the AFC presidency, Sheikh Salman is competing with Qatar’s Hassan al-Thawadi for filling Mr Bin Hammam’s seat on the executive committee of world soccer body FIFA.

Sources close to the AFC argue that the new president, who will be in office for less than two years to complete the term of Mr. Bin Hammam, will have little time for reform. As a result, they say Asian political and soccer leaders are focused on the 2015 election. “It takes six months to settle into office, six months to consolidate and then he’ll have six months to campaign,” said one source.

The focus on 2015 explains why the Gulf has fielded three rather than one candidate. “It would have taken one call from the king of Saudi Arabia for the Emirati and other Gulf candidates to pull out. They could have played if they had wanted to play,” the source said. Saudi media quoted the country’s sports czar, Prince Nawaf bin Feisal, as predicting this week that a Saudi national would head the AFC two years from now.

Nevertheless, politics is impacting next week’s election. It hardly helps the AFC’s image that the public campaign of front runner Sheikh Salman has in the recent weeks been dominated by defense of his record during the brutal squashing two years ago of a popular uprising in Bahrain.

The allegations of interference in the election center on the endorsement of Sheikh Salman by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) headed by former Kuwaiti government minister, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah. Messrs Al Serkal and Al Medlej have denounced the OCA’s support as interference in the election.

The OCA was reported to have offered in Sheikh Salman’s failed 2009 campaign several AFC members financial incentives if they voted for him. News reports said OAC officials have accompanied Sheikh Salman on several of his current campaign stops in Asia.

Inside World Football, citing its own sources and Reuters, reported further that the OCA had built domestic pressure in China to persuade acting AFC President Zhang Jilong to drop his plans to run for office. Mr. Jilong, who headed the AFC’s finance committee under Mr. Bin Hammam, emerged as one of the Qatari’s strongest critics and initiated last year’s PwC audit. He was described as ash-faced when he announced several months ago at a private meeting the he was not a candidate in the AFC election.

Inside World Football further disclosed this week a letter by AFC general secretary Dato' Alex Soosay to the group’s 46 member associations asking them to remember their "ethical obligations" when casting their vote. The letter warned against "offering and accepting gifts and benefits; bribery; and conflicts of interests." Mr. Soosay went on to note that “it is the duty and obligation of the Confederation to prevent the introduction of improper methods and practices which might jeopardize the integrity of, or give rise to, the abuse of football…”

Sheikh Salman, a member of the Bahraini royal family, has denounced allegations that his office assisted in abuse of human rights as a “clear attempt to damage my personal reputation and to interfere with the AFC presidential elections.”

He has stopped short of parroting statements by the government that protesters demanding greater freedom and rights were instigated by Iran described by a Bahrain expert in the corridors of a recent conference in Manama as delusional. The government this weekend denounced thousands of protesters who exploited the Formula One Grand Prix to showcase their grievances as “terrorists.”

Bahrain this week accused the US State Department of “fuelling terror and terrorists” by charging in a report on Bahrain that "the most serious human rights problems included citizens' inability to change their government peacefully; arrest and detention of protesters on vague charges, in some cases leading to their torture in detention." The report criticized the "lack of due process in trials of political and human rights activists, medical personnel, teachers, and students, with some resulting in harsh sentences." It claimed that "discrimination on the basis of gender, religion, nationality, and sect persisted, especially against the Shia population" which makes up a majority in Bahrain, ruled by the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty.

In a letter this week to AFC members, Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB) said that "in the two years since the uprising began, life has been anything but normal for Bahrain's football players. The actions taken against Bahrain's football players by the Bahrain Football Association, led by Sheikh Al-Khalifa, are hardly credible, are devoid of integrity, and fail to respect the personal rights of the players. As leader of the organization that led such abuses, Sheikh Al-Khalifa bears responsibility for what was done to these players. Yet, in response to recent questions about the arrest, detention, and abuse of Bahrain's football players, Sheikh Al-Khalifa abdicated any personal responsibility for the abuse. Sheikh Al-Khalifa's actions and attitude evidence a clear incompatibility with the AFC Code of Ethics.”

With the election shaping up as a close battle between Sheikh Salman and Mr. Al Serkal, the Emirati has emerged as the candidate with the most far-reaching program for reform of the AFC. He has nonetheless yet to convince proponents of reform that he would actually walk the talk. They note that his record as an AFC executive committee member under Mr. Bin Hammam does not serve as a credential.  

Mr. Al Serkal has promised to publish “all allowances and benefits given to me by the confederation, and expenditure incurred by my office,” establish a whistle-blower hotline to encourage the exposure of wrongdoing, make all the AFC’s commercial contracts available to its members for scrutiny, and hire auditors to look at current agreements.”

At the bottom line, the AFC has so far lacked the political will to tackle many of the same issues that also confront  FIFA which like the Asian and other regional soccer bodies have been scarred by years of scandal.

A study by three graduates of Ohio University's Sports Administration program laid out what needs to be done in FIFA that also apply to the AFC. Their recommendations, include enhanced financial governance and anti-corruption controls, a state-of-the-art anti-corruption compliance program, transformation of the ethics committee into an independent investigative body, establishment of a committee to determine executives’ and senior staffs’ salaries and benefits, creation of an election campaign finance system that bars private funding, and limitations on executives’ terms in office.”

“It is all up to the AFC Congress. The problem is some members follow certain people’s suggestions,” said one source close to the AFC.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute of Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog

ASEAN Super League offers World Sport Group potential fallback

By James M. Dorsey

Plans to launch an Association of Southeast Nations Football Federation (AFF) Super League with Singapore-based World Sport Group (WSG) as its marketing partner come against the backdrop of an Asian Football Confederation (AFC) presidential election that could put the company’s $1 billion marketing rights agreement with the Asian soccer body in jeopardy.

The new league would be independent of AFC competitions. It would initially kick off in 2015 with eight franchise teams but would likely grow to 16. Major Southeast Asian soccer nations, including Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore would have a limited number of franchises to ensure that upcoming countries like Laos and Myanmar are also represented.

AFF council member and AFC vice-president Prince Abdullah Ibni Sultan Ahmad Shah told Reuters that "the AFF has agreed to further develop the proposed concept of the ASEAN Super League together with World Sports Group to be presented to the AFC in the near future.’ The AFF needs the AFC to ensure that the winner of its Super League can compete in Asian championships.

Sources said WSG had approached AFF to be the Super League’s marketing partner. “They have a long-term relationship with the AFF and are trusted by the member associations. We asked them to come up with something that works. We made clear to ESH that this is not about money, it is about improving national leagues and clubs,” one source said.

The sources said the league was part of a greater effort to empower regional associations and win AFC recognition. “We have been discussing the super league for years in an effort to develop our profile.  We have zero power. Unlike FIFA or the AFC, we can’t compel member associations to do anything. It’s a way of developing training academies and making clubs self-sustainable so that they are not just a billionaire’s vanity project,” one source said.

AFC insiders suggested that although the value of the Super League’s revenues was likely to fall short of those of the AFC that are generated primarily by East Asian nations such as Japan and South Korea, it could constitute a fallback position for WSG should the company lose its Asian contract. Sources pointed to the financal success of the AFF’s Suzuki Cup as well as the commercial potential of soccer in countries like Indonesia and Singapore.

At the same time, the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) recently put out a tender to replace WSG as its marketing partner after the Singapore company’s contract expired. WAFF is believed to have received several competitive offers.

WSG’s AFC contract is an issue in the AFC presidential campaign that centers on questions of greater transparency, accountability and openness after two scandal-riddled years involving allegations of financial mismanagement and corruption under the leadership of its disgraced and banned former president, Mohammed Bin Hammam.

Of the four presidential candidates in the May 2 election -- Yousuf al Serkal of the United Arab Emirates, Worawi Makdudi of Thailand and Hafez Ibrahim Al Medlej of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain Football Association head Sheik Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa --, Mr. Al Serkal has gone the furthest in promising reforms that could affect the WSG contract.

The UAE soccer executive unveiled earlier this month a platform that promises to publish “all allowances and benefits given to me by the confederation, and expenditure incurred by my office,” establish a whistle-blower hotline encourage the exposure of wrongdoing, make all the AFC’s commercial contracts available to its members for scrutiny, and hire auditors to look at current agreements.

Mr. Al Serkal stopped short of saying that he would implement the recommendations of a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) audit that last year concluded that Mr. Bin Hammam had used an AFC sundry account as his personal account and that raised questions about the negotiation and terms of WSG’s master rights agreement.

The audit noted that the contract had not been put to tender and questioned its terms as well as payments made to Mr. Bin Hammam by a WSG shareholder in advance of the signing of the agreement. It advised the AFC to seek legal advice for possible criminal or civil charges against Mr. Bin Hammam and to ascertain whether the contract with WSG could be renegotiated or even cancelled.

Mr. Al Serkal’s foremost opponent, Sheikh Salman, widely viewed as a frontrunner because he is backed by the Kuwaiti head of the Olympic Council of Asia, Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al-Sabah, insisted in a meeting with reporters in Dubai on Tuesday that he too would address the issues raised by the PwC audit but provided less specifics on how he would go about it.

''If there was wrongdoing in the past, it has to be corrected. If I succeed on second of May, we need to keep our (member associations) and FIFA aware of all the wrongdoing in the past and how we can correct things. The most important thing is to have Asia united again.''

Sheikh Salman, a member of the Bahraini royal family who besides running for the AFC office is competing with Qatar’s Hassan al-Thawadi for a seat on the executive committee of world soccer body FIFA, seemed equally interested in arguing that the AFC presidency should automatically grant him a seat on the FIFA board should he be elected.

The only candidate who is not associated with Mr. Bin Hammam, Sheikh Salman focused much of his reform agenda on fighting match fixing in a region that is at the center of the distortion of the beautiful game. He said he would have zero tolerance for offenders and would enlist the help of governments.

"I think people have sensed the wind of change. I think I represent the new face of Asia. People who want to vote for the change, the choice is clear. If people want to leave matters as they are, they have the right to do so. I think for the last few years it's been like a roller-coaster up and down that the AFC has suffered. I think it's time to steer the ship to calmer waters… We want a clean AFC, we want to do the changes that are needed, the transparency," Sheikh Salman said.

Tweeting on social media platform Twitter, Dubai-based Associated Press sports reporter Mike Casey described Sheikh Salman’s notion of transparency when asked by another reporter about the arrest two years ago of three Bahraini national soccer team players for having participated in a popular uprising that was brutally squashed.

Sheikh Salman has systematically refused to comment on the fact that the players were denounced as traitors on state-run television, allegedly tortured and charged. The charges were ultimately dropped under pressure from FIFA.

"My response is let's talk about football and leave the political side to the other people who deal with that. We hear reports a lot from all sides and I am here to talk about the elections. I don't want to talk about these matters because the moment you talk about it, it opens the door. Since I have been in charge of football here in Bahrain, we always leave religious and political matters and views outside to try to focus on the game,” Sheikh Salman said in Dubai.

The nexus of sports and politics in Bahrain was however evident this week with members of Bahrain's village-based February 14^thCoalition youth movement exploding a series of non-lethal devices in protest against Bahrain’s Formula One Grand Prix. The attacks dubbed Operation: Ultimatum 3 followed mass demonstrations against this week’s staging of the race at a time of continued political and social strife organized by Bahrain’s official opposition that included a 1.6 kilometer long stretch of protesters blocking a key highway.

On Twitter, Mr. Casey, who was last year barred entry to Bahrain but granted a visa to cover this week’s F1m initially reported that the moderator of Sheikh Salman’s press conference intervened when he was asked about the players and that the question went unanswered. Mr. Casey subsequently tweeted: “Told to leave #SheikSalman's presser over stories I've written in past, not a good first step for openness.” He finally said on Twitter: “Organizers at #Sheik Salman’s presser allow me to remain after I refuse to leave, welcome them to call security.”

At least one other reporter was barred from attending the news conference because of critical reporting on Bahrain.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute of Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog

Bahrain soccer chief faces tough questions in AFC election

By James M. Dorsey

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC), struggling to restore credibility after two scandal-riddled years involving allegations of financial mismanagement and corruption, has had a foretaste of questions and issues that are likely to be raised if Bahrain Football Association head Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa , widely viewed as a frontrunner, wins the group’s May 2 presidential election.

Sheikh Salman is one of four candidates running to replace Mohammed Bin Hammam, the disgraced and banned former president of the governing Asian soccer. Sheikh Salman lost to Mr. Bin Hammam four years ago in a bitter election campaign and is the only current candidate who is not associated with the Qatari national.

Mr. Bin Hammam was last December banned for life from involvement in soccer by world football body FIFA on charges of multiple conflicts of interest that violated the group’s code of ethics. An earlier internal AFC audit conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) had concluded that he had used an AFC sundry account as his personal account.

It also raised questions about his further financial and commercial management of the group, including the negotiation and terms of a $1billion master rights agreement (MRA) with Singapore-based World Sport Group (WSG). WSG has taken legal action against this reporter in a bid to squash reporting and silence sources.

The AFC and Sheikh Salman, who is backed by the powerful Olympic Council of Asia headed by Kuwaiti Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al-Sabah, got an inkling of issues involved in the Bahraini’s candidacy when Manchester United soccer legend Dennis Law this month visited the Gulf island state.

A human rights group, Human Rights First, charged this week that a Bahraini medical doctor, Dr Fatima Haji, had been arrested, beaten and electrocuted two years ago during a brutally squashed popular uprising for asking Manchester United to hold a minute's silence for 15-year-old Ahmad Shams, who was shot and killed during the uprising wearing a Manchester United shirt.

Mr. Law and Manchester United have so far avoided addressing the issue. The club’s website quoted Mr. Law as saying: "I have been overwhelmed by the number of United fans who have greeted me here today. It is my first time in Bahrain and the welcome I have received has been fantastic.”

Nevertheless, the squashing of the revolt that involved the arrest and/or dismissal of some 150 Bahraini athletes and sports officials, including three national team soccer players, continues to haunt the country as well as Sheikh Salman, a member of Bahrain’s royal family.

Companies sponsoring Formula One motor racing have shown significantly less willingness to fund this week’s Bahrain Grand Prix after last year’s race failed to move criticism of the country’s human rights record and continued protests out of the limelight.  This week’s race is likely to again focus attention on Bahrain’s domestic tensions.

Thomson Reuters and Diageo’s Johnnie Walker whisky brand, which is culturally sensitive in a Muslim nation, opted out of this year’s Bahrain Grand Prix. Vodafone decided to use the logos of its Middle East partner Zain rather than its own. Oil company Shell said its involvement in Bahrain would be limited to sending three technicians to offer support on fuel and lubricants while Swiss bank UBS would not host any of its clients at the Bahrain race.

Hesitancy towards Bahrain is reinforced by the fact that two years after the squashing of the revolt with the help of a Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation (GCC) force protests continue unabated. Few expect talks between the government and the opposition to resolve the crisis with hardliners within the royal family on the ascendancy and despite indications that Saudi Arabia is concerned that the situation on the island, a mere 45-minute drive from its predominantly Shiite, oil-rich Eastern Province, could again get out of hand.

Sheikh Salman is likely to be questioned at a news conference in Dubai this week about his failure to stand up for the soccer players who were arrested, denounced as traitors, allegedly tortured and charged. The charges were ultimately dropped under pressure from FIFA. "Sheikh Salman has taken a hard-liner on football players accused of protest activity during the uprising, but most likely he was simply the executor of this crackdown,” said Justin Gengler, a Doha-based Bahrain analyst.

With his competitor’s -- Yousuf al Serkal of the United Arab Emirates, Worawi Makdudi of Thailand and Hafez Al Medlej of Saudi Arabia – promising reform of the AFC, Sheikh Salman will have to come up at his meeting with journalists with a convincing program that holds out the promise of greater transparency and accountability of the troubled Asian body.

Sheikh Salman drafted in February a seven-point program entitled United for Change that pledged to fight match-fixing, doping and illegal betting; ensure full financial transparency by introducing international accounting standards and externally audited yearly reports; and guarantee equality in the distribution of AFC commercial revenues.

Mr. Serkal has since then unveiled a platform that promises to publish “all allowances and benefits given to me by the confederation, and expenditure incurred by my office,” establish a whistle-blower hotline encourage the exposure of wrongdoing, make all the AFC’s commercial contracts available to its members for scrutiny, and hire auditors to look at current agreements.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute of Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog

AFC presidential candidates’ promises of reform put World Sport Group in the crosshairs

By James M. Dorsey

Candidates in next month’s Asian Football Confederation (AFC) presidential election designed to appoint a successor to disgraced Qatari national Mohammed Bin Hammam are competing to project themselves as agents of change following two years of scandals in world soccer involving charges of corruption and financial mismanagement.

On the surface of it, all four candidates in the May 2 election lack the credentials of a reformer. Three of them – Yousuf al Serkal of the United Arab Emirates, Worawi Makdudi of Thailand and Hafez Al Medlej of Saudi Arabia – are close associates of Mr. Bin Hammam while Bahrain Football Association head Sheik Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa represents a nation that two years ago banned three of its top national soccer team players for taking part in a failed public uprising.

At least one of the players was allegedly tortured while in detention. Sheikh Salman, a member of the Bahraini royal family, has largely refrained from criticizing the arrests of the players or the sacking of some 150 other sports executives and athletes, many of whom have since been reinstated.

Nevertheless, if the winning candidate sticks to his campaign promises greater transparency in and improved governance of Asian soccer may be on the horizon.

Speaking to reporters in Dubai this week, Mr. Al Serkal, the only prominent Bin Hammam associate never to have been accused of wrongdoing, detailed a program that would involve significant change. The UAE official and AFC executive committee member promised to publish “all allowances and benefits given to me by the confederation, and expenditure incurred by my office,” establish a whistle-blower hotline to encourage the exposure of wrongdoing, make all the AFC’s commercial contracts available for its members to scrutinize and hire auditors to look at current agreements.

Mr. Al Serkal stopped short of saying that he would implement the recommendations of a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) audit that last year concluded that Mr. Bin Hammam had used an AFC sundry account as his personal account and that raised questions about the negotiation and terms of a $1 billion master rights agreement (MRA) with Singapore-based World Sport Group (WSG).

The audit noted that the contract had not been put to tender, and questioned its terms as well as payments made to Mr. Bin Hammam by a WSG shareholder in advance of the signing of the agreement. It advised the AFC to seek legal advice for possible criminal or civil charges against Mr. Bin Hammam and to ascertain whether the contract with WSG could be renegotiated or even cancelled.

Mr. Bin Hammam, who dominated Asian soccer for a decade, was last year banned for life by world soccer body FIFA from involvement in soccer because of alleged conflicts of interest that violated the group’s code of ethics.

If elected and if he sticks to his word, Mr. Al Serkal would be encouraging unprecedented scrutiny of the AFC’s relationship with WSG. Sheikh Salman was viewed until Mr. Al Serkal’s detailing of his program as the most likely candidate to introduce reform. Sheikh Salman, who is supported by the powerful Kuwaiti head of the Olympic Council of Asia, Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al-Sabah, was narrowly defeated some four years ago by Mr. Bin Hammam in a bitter battle for a seat on the FIFA executive committee that involved personal attacks, power abuse claims and alleged cash bribes for votes.   

Sheikh Salman drafted in February a seven-point program entitled United for Change that pledged to fight match-fixing, doping and illegal betting; ensure full financial transparency by introducing international accounting standards and externally audited yearly reports; and guarantee equality in the distribution of AFC commercial revenues.

WSG has gone to great lengths to ensure the confidentiality of its agreement with the AFC as well as to control its implementation. Sources close to the AFC as previously reported on this blog have said that not all executive committee members have seen the MRA and that those who have could only do so on the premises of the AFC and that WSG last year engineered the early departure of the head of the AFC marketing committee, who had previously been banned from attending marketing meetings with the AFC contractor.

WSG moreover last year initiated legal action against this reporter for writing about the PwC audit even though it had already been widely reported and for reporting that the AFC had been advised not to sign the MRA because it was not in the group’s interest. WSG demanded in the proceedings that this reporter disclose his sources in a bid to silence him and his sources and intimidate potential whistleblowers.

In a landmark decision in late February, a Singapore court granted this reporter the right to appeal an earlier court order that he disclose sources. The court dismissed WSG's application to strike out his appeal.

Mr. Al Serkal dismissed Mr. Bin Hammam’s endorsement of his candidacy in a Twitter message to Bloomberg News, saying “that friendship had nothing to do with the work that we used to do. I always had different ideas and opinions and had conflict with him and raised issues in meeting. I keep friendship separate from work.”

The burden on the new president of the AFC to introduce reform is reinforced by the fact that FIFA members will next month vote on host of reform proposals in the wake of several scandals involving alleged wrong doing by members of its executive committee. That burden is further bolstered by the fact that Asia has been at the center of a match-fixing scandal that has rocked world soccer. Authorities in Singapore, from where the match fixers are believed to operate, last week charge three Lebanese executives with accepting sexual favors as an inducement to fix a game.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute of Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog

AFC election-lineup: little real promise of badly needed reform

By James M. Dorsey

The line-up of contenders for the presidency of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), promises everything but the wind of reform and change the group badly needs after almost two years of controversy and scandal that are still reverberating through the world of soccer.

With five days left to the March 3 deadline by which candidates have to announce themselves, the list of contenders so far reads like a cast of characters from a B-movie. In many ways, the line-up reflects a scandal-ridden world of questionable governance in global soccer in which officials project themselves as proponents of change, albeit change that does not fundamentally rock their comfortable boat.

The 46-member AFC is scheduled to elect its new president at an extraordinary congress on May 2 following the banning for life from involvement in professional soccer late last year by world soccer body FIFA of Mohammed Bin Hammam, the AFC’s most recent elected head.

Three of the five contenders - Yousef Al Serkal of the United Arab Emirates, Worawi Makdudi of Thailand and Hafez Al Medlej of Saudi Arabia -- are all associates of Mr. Bin Hammam. The Qatari national was accused of multiple conflicts of interest and financial mismanagement of the AFC.

Mr. Makdudi has repeatedly been investigated for fraud and corruption. He denied last September fraud allegations made by a South Korean firm related to the cancelation of a multi-million-dollar broadcast rights deal. Earlier, he was accused by former English Football Association chairman Lord David Triesman of involvement in an alleged scheme to buy votes for England’s failed 2018 World Cup bid. Makdudi was cleared in 2011 of accusations that funds meant for the Thai soccer association to build facilities were instead spent on building assets on land he owned in Bangkok. Most recently, the Thai parliament investigated FIFA’s refusal to approve a newly futsal facility by his association.

Mr. Serkal's hiring last year of two former AFC employees associated with Mr. Bin Hammam's controversial at best financial management of the AFC holds out little promise for a real break with the past. As head of the AFC marketing committee, Mr. Al Medlej was not only a Bin Hammam associate but also involved in a $1 billion commercial rights agreement with Singapore-based World Sport Group (WSG) that was questioned by an internal audit of the group conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). PwC raised questions about the propriety of the negotiation of the agreement as well as its terms and advised the AFC to explore the possibility of renegotiating or even cancelling the agreement.

The fourth candidate, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, head of the Bahrain Football Association, was narrowly defeated four years ago by Mr. Bin Hammam in his bid for a seat on the FIFA executive committee. World Football Insider characterized the bitter battle between the two men as dominated by personal attacks, power abuse claims and cash bribes for votes.

Sheikh Salman’s candidacy is further clouded by the fact that he is a member of the Bahrain royal family that brutally suppressed a popular uprising in 2011 in which scores of sports people, including three members of the country’s national soccer team, were arrested for supporting the protests. Some, including soccer players, asserted that they were tortured in prison. In an interview with Associated Press this week, Sheikh Salman conceded that "people will talk about what happened.”

Of the five candidates, Acting AFC chairman Zhang Jilong is the only one who has sought to introduce a degree of change within the AFC. Critics say Mr. Zhang was restricted in his ability to challenge Mr. Bin Hammam's influence even after he was first suspended in the early summer of 2011 because of the fact that he had headed the AFC's finance committee during the Qatari national's presidency.

Reformers within the AFC hope to turn the need for candidates to project themselves as agents of a clean break by demanding that they put forward a program that encapsules their vision for the group's future. The West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) that groups the AFC's Middle Eastern associations announced this week that it would vote for the candidate whose program best served soccer in the region.

In response, Sheikh Salman has drafted a seven-point program entitled United for Change, according to World Football Insider, that pledges to fight match-fixing, doping and illegal betting; ensure full financial transparency by introducing international accounting standards and externally audit yearly reports; and guarantee equality in the distribution of AFC commercial revenues.

The reformers’ hope that the programs will allow them to hold whoever gets elected to their word could prove easier said than done. The new president will chair an existing executive committee whose majority has so far been more inclined to delay rather than introduce real change. One litmus test, with most candidates likely to promise financial transparency, will be whether the new president acts on the PwC recommendations or at least initiates a thorough investigation of the group's finances and commercial dealings.

That would involve revisiting the WSG contract that according to PwC may have been undervalued. PwC stopped short of drawing conclusions about the propriety of the agreement but suggested there were grounds for a review that include payments to Mr. Bin Hammam totaling $14 million by a WSG shareholder in the walk-up to the signing of the contract. Sources say pressure on the new president to follow through is compounded by continued inquiries into Mr. Bin Hammam’s management of the AFC by FIFA ethics investigator Michael J. Garcia.

WSG started last year legal proceeeding against syndicated columnist and author of this blog, James M. Dorsey, in a bid to force him to reveal his sources. The bid is designed to squash reporting and intimidate sources. A Singapore court, in a landmark decision earlier this week, granted Mr. Dorsey the right to appeal an earlier court ruling instructing him to disclose sources.

WSG’s performance is already under scrutiny within the AFC with some of the group’s members insisting that it service a broader swath of Asian matches that are not necessarily among those that are commercially most lucrative. The push is part of a larger effort to broaden participation in the AFC’s Champion League to ensure that all members reap the benefits of commercialization.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of Wuerzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog.

AFC announces litmus test post-Bin Hammam presidential election

By James M. Dorsey

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has announced an election to replace its banned former head, Mohammed Bin Hammam that will determine the group’s sincerity in breaking with the past by acting on recommendations for reform and ensuring good governance.

The election comes against the backdrop of multiple scandals that have rocked soccer’s governing bodies. Mr. Bin Hammam was at the center of the scandals. After a bitter battle, he was late last year banned for life by FIFA, world football’s governing authority, on charges of mismanagement of the AFC’s finances and “repeated violations” of the FIFA Code of Ethics related to conflict of interest.

“This election is not about the presidency; it is about reform and good governance within the AFC. Candidates will have to step up to the plate and present their credentials for reform,” said a source close to the AFC.

Nominations for the election, which will be held on May 2, are open until March 3. So far, three candidates – Acting AFC president Zhang Zhilong of China, Yousuf Al Serkal from the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain’s Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa – are believed to be in the running. It was not clear whether a representative of the reformers within the AFC would run for the group’s highest office.

Of the three current candidates, only Mr. Zhang, who despite having headed the AFC’s finance committee during Mr. Bin Hammam’s tenure, has shown any inclination towards badly needed reform of the AFC.

Mr. Serkal, who hired two employees of the AFC who were dismissed for their alleged involvement in Mr. Bin Hammam’s financial management and were named in an internal audit that brought the mismanagement to light, is widely seen as close to the disgraced Qatari national.

Sheikh Salman is controversial because of his endorsement of a crackdown on Bahraini athletes and sports executives, including members of the Gulf state’s national soccer team, some of who claimed that they were tortured in prison, for their participation in 2011 in a popular uprising on the island.

The internal audit conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) charged that Mr. Bin Hammam had used an AFC personal account as his personal account and raised questions about his negotiation of a $1 billion master rights agreement with Singapore-based World Sport Group (WSG). It said that a WSG shareholder, associated with Saudi billionaire Saleh Kamel, had made two payments totaling $14 million to Mr. Bin Hammam in advance of signing the agreement.

PwC said that there was a “significant risk that: i. The AFC may have been used as a vehicle to launder funds and that the funds have been credited to the former President (Bin Hammam) for an improper purpose (Money Laundering risk), ii. The AFC may have been used as a vehicle to launder the receipt and payment of bribes.”

The AFC executive committee late last year deferred the audit to its legal committee in a move that was widely seen as an attempt to bury it at least temporarily until the presidential election. WSG has initiated legal proceedings against this reporter in an unsuccessful bid to squash unfavorable reporting about its affairs and silence sources.

The stakes for the AFC and its credibility are high. The banning of Mr. Bin Hammam and the PwC report come in an environment in which world soccer’s governing bodies are viewed as secretive, non-transparent and unaccountable at best and corrupt at worst and that raises more questions than soccer officials have been willing to answer.

The newly elected AFC president will be under pressure to act on the PwC report that called on the AFC to seek legal counsel on possible civil or criminal action against Mr. Bin Hammam and to establish whether the WSG contract can be re-negotiated or even cancelled. “The new president will have to prioritize reform taking the PwC report into consideration,” said a source close to the AFC.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of Wuerzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog.

FIFA reviews Qatar’s World Cup bid

By James M. Dorsey

World soccer body FIFA has opened an inquiry into potential wrongdoing in Qatar’s successful but controversial bid to host the 2022 World Cup.

“As has been publicly announced, certain allegations regarding events surrounding the bidding for the World Cup 2018 and 2022 were referred to the ethics committee by FIFA following media reports. We intend to conduct a thorough review of those allegations, including the evidentiary basis for and credibility of any allegations of individual misconduct,” said FIFA ethic investigator Michael J. Garcia in a statement.

In an email in response to this posting, FIFA drew in an email a distinction between a review of allegations and an investigation. It said the review was intended to determine whether there were grounds for an investigation.

The outcome of the review will be widely seen as a test of FIFA's willingness to thoroughly investigate allegations and truly tackle fundamental governance issues against a widely held perception that the soccer body has yet to demonstrate real sincerity. Few believe that FIFA, which will also look at Russia’s winning of the right to host the 2018 tournament, would want to risk a either country being deprived of the honor.

FIFA's effort would have to further address the worst albeit politically loaded corruption scandal in the history of world soccer in which the bids are inextricably meshed as part of its undertaking to convince its critics.

The review comes after more than a year of legal and political battle that late last year led to the final demise of Mohammed Bin Hammam, the highest placed Qatari national who was ultimately stripped of his membership in FIFA’s executive council as well as his presidency of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and banned for life by FIFA from involvement in soccer.  

The allegations of corruption and bribery against Mr. Bin Hammam raise questions about the degree and nature of his involvement in the Qatari bid.

Qatar has so far successfully denied allegations that its bid may have involved corrupt practices. And to be fair, much of the Qatari efforts, including funding facilities in home countries of FIFA executive committee members and friendlies of some of their national teams, do not violate the world soccer body’s bid rules, but raise questions about the integrity of those guidelines.

Qatar has consistently denied that Mr. Bin Hammam was involved in its World Cup bid. While it seems strange that the highest Qatari soccer official in world soccer who enjoyed the backing of Qatari emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani at least until he announced that he would challenge FIFA president Sepp Blatter in the group’s presidential election, that may be true for the final phase of the Qatari bid. Mr. Bin Hammam’s presidential challenge sparked the allegations that ultimately led to his downfall.

To some degree, the interests of Qatar and Mr. Bin Hammam diverged with the announcement of his presidential bid. Mr. Bin Hammam is believed to have felt that an almost simultaneous Qatari winning of World Cup hosting rights and the FIFA presidency may have been too much for world soccer to stomach. As a result, he may have not been really involved in the final phases of the Qatari bid.

That leaves nonetheless the question open of his involvement prior to his presidential campaign against the background of multiple allegations and questions about bribery and corruption in his election campaign as well as the financial management of the AFC. While there seems little doubt that Mr. Bin Hammam violated international standards of financial good governance, his actions, with the possible exception of his negotiation on behalf of the AFC of a controversial $1 billion master rights agreement with Singapore-based World Sports Group (WSG) seem largely the result of sticking to a back-slapping way of doing business in the Gulf that is not internationally accepted rather than greed.

Whether that applies also to the WSG deal will only be clear once Mr. Bin Hammam and WSG justify the negotiation procedure for the agreement that did not involve a tender as well as payments made to Mr. Bin Hammam, according to an internal AFC audit conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), by a WSG shareholder in advance of the signing of the contract. WSG, which has so far refrained from commenting on much of the PwC audit, including the payments, has initiated legal proceedings against this reporter in a bid to squash reporting and intimidate sources.

While FIFA may steer clear of a renewed look at Mr. Bin Hammam’s AFC dealings in its investigation of the World Cup bids, the ball will be in the court of the AFC once it has elected in April a new executive committee that will be expected to demonstrate that it is making a clean break with the past.

Qatar has paved the ground for separating inquiries into its bid from Mr. Bin Hammam’s dealings by pressuring him late last year to give up his fight to maintain his position in world soccer. Mr. Bin Hammam’s banning by FIFA coincided with his resignation from his posts in FIFA and the AFC.

Nonetheless, the FIFA inquiry makes Qatar more vulnerable to criticism of its hosting of the world’s largest sporting tournament, including the rights and working conditions of the country’s foreign labor force, who constitute a majority of the population as well as human rights following the sentencing to life in prison in November of a poet for a poem that was critical of Sheikh Hamad and the royal family.

Qatar has in recent months demonstrated that it is not insensitive to criticism and foreign pressure. In a bid to fend off a boycott campaign of the World Cup by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) which has 175 million members in 153 countries, Qatar has agreed that it would not penalize workers who form independent unions. The ITUC plans to put that promise to the test later this year.

Similarly, in a rare concession to human rights groups, Qatar recently backed away from deporting to Saudi Arabia a dissident Saudi diplomat. Instead, the diplomat, Mishal bin Zaar Hamad al-Mutiry, who accused his government of involvement in terrorism, was allowed to go into exile in Morocco.

“The spotlight shone on this case resulted in the Qatari authorities curtailing their plans to deport Mishal al-Mutiry long enough for him and his family to leave of their own accord, and the assistance of the NHRC was crucial to ensuring they could travel,” said Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Programme Director at Amnesty International.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of Wuerzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog