One month after FIFA chose Qatar to host the 2022 World
Cup, the tiny emirate hosts a congress of 45 Asian soccer nations that will
vote for a vice president to represent it on the governing body's ruling
executive committee.
Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan is the challenger
seeking united Arab support to help unseat the incumbent Chung Mong-joon of South
Korea.
A victory for Prince Ali would end any ambitions Chung
may have to challenge Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency in June.
Blatter is in Doha to witness the Asian vote and build
support in his own re-election campaign.
The time has come for changes at the top of world
soccer's governing body FIFA, Mohamed Bin Hammam said in an interview on
Wednesday in which he did not rule out standing for the presidency himself this
year.
The 61-year-old Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president,
who had previously hinted he would not stand against Sepp Blatter this year,
said he was upset by the way Blatter announced that he wanted to introduce an
anti-corruption committee to police FIFA. Blatter said last week he would put
the idea to Congress which meets at the end of May.
"I am a member of the FIFA executive committee and
we never discussed this idea (the anti-corruption committee) inside the
executive committee - I read about it in the media," Bin Hammam said on
the eve of the AFC Congress in his native Qatar.
"I
don't appreciate that we go to a meeting of FIFA and we find already that a
committee has been formed, that members have been appointed and the code, or
whatever has been decided." "I think FIFA needs a lot of
improvement." Asked if he would consider standing for election as
president later this year, Bin Hammam smiled and shrugged.
