The AFC president responds to Qatar in the Infantino case
A new rift in the Asian house
The rift within the Asian football family widened on Tuesday. Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, President of the Asian Football Confederation, hit back at the criticism the Qatar Football Association had aimed at the continental body. At the heart of it lay FIFA president Gianni Infantino and his shelved plan to bring private investment into the World Cup.
Infantino may have backed away from that project to hand the private sector a role in FIFA competitions, chief among them the World Cup, but the pressure on him hasn't eased. Last week the confederations of Asia, Europe and CONCACAF renewed their attack through a joint letter.
Football "is not the property of any individual", the three confederations stressed, in a passage that read like a direct shot at Infantino. They went further, insisting that "leadership in football is not ownership, nor is it about holding on to power or claiming the right to retain it".
Their letter did not stop there: "When trust is lost as a result of deception, and when an individual places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority, he has abandoned that duty".
Infantino's critics called on him to step down over his failed bid to sell stakes in the World Cup. Qatar, though, had no time for the Asian Confederation's stance, nor for the joint open letter.
A fiery Qatari statement
Any position presented as a collective stance of the member associations, the Qatar Football Association argued, "must be based on prior consultation".
In a statement distributed by its media director, the association demanded "a written clarification regarding the consultation process that preceded the issuance of the statement". It also wanted to know "the mechanism for informing or consulting the national member associations, and clarifying the basis on which the Asian Confederation relied in speaking collectively on behalf of its members".
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani, President of the Qatar Football Association, made the grievance plain: "the Qatar Football Association was not consulted, formally or informally, before the statement was issued".
He added: "It also did not receive any prior notice or draft of the statement, and it was not given the opportunity to comment on or contribute to its content before it was published in the name of the Asian Confederation and on behalf of its members".
Any collective stance, he affirmed, "must be based on a clear consultation process that precedes its announcement, and a collective consensus must not be assumed without referring back to the members".
Sheikh Salman's response
Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa fired back on Tuesday. He denied overstepping the mark and insisted he had acted "within the legal mandate granted to me under the statutes of the Asian Confederation".
The Bahraini official told the Saudi newspaper "Asharq Al-Awsat": "I categorically reject any insinuation that I exceeded my powers through my participation in the statement, or that the Asian Confederation was wrong to take part in it".
He added: "The Asian Confederation is the governing body of football in Asia, and its president bears the responsibility of protecting the interests and values of the game. In circumstances such as those that led to the issuance of the joint statement, remaining silent would contradict this responsibility".
Infantino, meanwhile, brushed aside the resignation calls. He won "full support" from senior FIFA officials at an emergency meeting he convened in Morocco two weeks ago.
