By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
May 1 – The timing could hardly be worse. On the eve of the vote to clean up its act, Asian football has been rocked by yet another embarrassing scandal after Sri Lanka’s Vernon Manilal Fernando, one of the continent’s most powerful administrators, was kicked out of FIFA for eight years over unspecified unethical wrongdoing.
By Paul Nicholson, Editor in chief
May 1 – A third human rights organisation has written to FIFA president Sepp Blatter asking him to refer Asian Football Confederation presidential candidate Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa of Bahrain to FIFA’s ethics committee.
By Mark Baber
April 30 – Thailand’s broadcast regulator has ruled that all 64 matches of the 2014 World Cup finals must be televised over free-TV channels. The ruling comes as a blow to Thai pay channel RS Inc which holds the rights.
By John Duerden in Kuala Lumpur
April 30 – Yousuf Al-Serkal has not only labelled Bahraini rival Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa over-confident for predicting that he could win Thursday’s Asian Football Confederation presidential election in the first-round of voting but the head of the United Arab Emirates FA hinted to Inside World Football that he could receive help from other candidates in subsequent rounds.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
April 29 – The acrimonious war of words in the build-up to this week’s eagerly awaited Presidential election for the most powerful man in Asian football has intensified with the Kuwaiti Football Association denouncing Yousuf al-Serkal of the United Arab Emirates for comments he made regarding interference by the Olympic Council of Asia, run by Kuwait’s Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah.
By John Duerden in Kuala Lumpur
April 29 – It is somewhat ironic for an election in which transparency and unity are the major issues that so much of the lobbying and campaigning has been played out almost entirely behind closed doors amid ever increasing divisions. But this is football politics, Asian style.
By Mark Baber
April 26 – Sri Lankan FA president Ranjith Rodrigo (pictured) met with FIFA president Sepp Blatter to discuss Sri Lanka’s reconstruction efforts after years of conflict and the 2004 tsunami.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 26 – Hassan Al-Thawadi, the face of Qatar’s 2022 World Cup campaign who has kept an unusually low media profile as he seeks a place on the top table at FIFA, has finally unveiled his reasons for being elected to its executive committee next week.
April 26 – The shockwaves from Jack Warner’s ‘Straight Talk’ public meeting last night have reached as far as under-fire AFC presidential candidate Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa.
By Mark Baber
April 25 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter has been urged by two human rights organisations to step in and prevent Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa of Bahrain (pictured) from running next week for President of the Asian Football Confederation and a position on FIFA’s all-powerful executive committee.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
April 26 – The three West Asian contenders fighting to become the next head of Asian football have failed to reach a consensus on putting forward one sole candidate for next week’s presidential election but are set to hold further private talks in the build-up to the vote.
By John Duerden
April 25 – Worawi Makudi, one of four candidates in the running to become the president of the Asian Football Confederation in next Thursday’s election, has told Inside World Football that he has enough support to win.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
April 25 – A week ahead of the eagerly awaited election to choose a new leader to clean up Asian football, Bahrain’s Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa is again having to fend off serious allegations of human rights abuses in his country.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
April 22 – The entire membership of Asian football has been officially warned against accepting bribes or backhanders in the build-up to the forthcoming presidential election. Less than two weeks before the eagerly awaited vote, InsideWorldFootball has been leaked a confidential letter that urges delegates to behave properly and not discredit their already corruption-tarnished confederation.
