KUALA LUMPUR // Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa of Bahrain has been elected the new president of Asian Football Federation (AFC) after receiving a two-third majority in the first round of voting. Sheikh Salman received 33 votes of the 46 votes, two more than the 31 required for a two-third majority, to finish way ahead of his rivals, Worawi Makudi of Thailand and Yousuf Al Serkal, the <a href="gopher://topicL3RoZW5hdGlvbmFsL1Blb3BsZS9TcG9ydC9BZG1pbmlzdHJhdG9ycy9VQUUgRm9vdGJhbGwgQXNzb2NpYXRpb24=" inlink="topic::L3RoZW5hdGlvbmFsL1Blb3BsZS9TcG9ydC9BZG1pbmlzdHJhdG9ycy9VQUUgRm9vdGJhbGwgQXNzb2NpYXRpb24=">UAE Football Association</a> president. Makudi finished second with seven votes while Al Serkal received six. After his landslide win in the presidency election, Sheikh Salman scored a second triumph at the ballots, finishing ahead of Qatar’s Hassan Al Thawadi in the contest for the Fifa Executive Committee seat. Sheikh Salman received 28 of the 46 votes, while Al Thawadi got 18. Moya Dodd of Australia was elected unopposed as the female AFC vice-president. Earlier, Brunei was asked to vote in the Extraordinary Congress after 35 member associations voted to allow an exemption for them. Brunei have not participated in two AFC competitions over the past two years and hence, under the confederation’s statues, were not eligible to vote in the presidency elections today. But a motion raised by one of the South East Asian member associations, and seconded by two more, sought an exemption for them to vote. The motion needed a two-third majority to pass, which it received comfortably with 35 of the 47 member associations in favour of allowing Brunei to vote. With Brunei also getting a vote, 46 members decided the next AFC president at the ballots. More to follow... Follow us
