Summary: Investigative journalist and correspondent James Dorsey helps us breakdown the candidates, intentions and frame of reference of a current Asian Football Confederation (AFC) presidential election process designed to appoint a successor to disgraced Qatari national Mohammed Bin Hammam, where all the key figures are projecting themselves as agents of change after two years of scandal which has rocked this very important federation. Three of these candidates – Yousuf al Serkal of the United Arab Emirates, Worawi Makdudi of Thailand and Hafez Al Medlej of Saudi Arabia – have been close associates of Mr. Bin Hammam while Bahrain Football Association head Sheik Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa represents a nation which two years ago banned three of its top national soccer team players for taking part in a failed public uprising. This is both a complex and significant election in terms of where football and international sport could be headed in the decade ahead as the AFC continues remarkable growth and influence over some of the largest brands and media companies inside the game today and looks to expand its influence even more in the lead up to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. To complete a past, present and future evaluation of the inside political world and its reference points, we examine the legacy of Mohammed Bin Hammam within the AFC, the huge challenge now laid at the feet of these candidates and what needs to be done next to ensure that reform and transparency are simply not campaign code words and wedge issues for a process that must alter the direction of this football powerhouse, the AFC. This begins nowhere other than the enduring questions and recommendations raised by a Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) audit that last year which 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 USD master rights agreement (MRA) with Singapore-based World Sport Group (WSG). James Dorsey was at the center of those revelations and he offers his insight and detail quite like nobody else in this arena.
