Asian Football Confederation

Sheikh Salman wins AFC presidential election

Kuala Lumpur: Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa will run Asian soccer for the next two years after the Bahraini won a three-way election for the presidency of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on Thursday. Sheikh Salman secured 33 votes of the 46 available from the AFC's member associations in Malaysia to beat Yousuf Al Serkal of the United Arab Emirates (six votes) and Thailand's Worawi Makudi (seven votes).

Outsider Hafez Al Medlej of Saudi Arabia unsurprisingly withdrew on the eve of the vote after failing to win full support of the West Asian region. Sheikh Salman replaces Qatari Mohamed Bin Hammam, who was banned for life by FIFA in 2011 amid allegations of trying to buy votes. The AFC has been in limbo ever since, with China's Zhang Jilong's interim leadership beset by numerous match-fixing and graft scandals among member associations.

Sepp Blatter, the president of world governing body FIFA, said earlier on Thursday it was time for Asian soccer to move forward. "It is a historical day because it is a day of election, a day of election in your confederation that has been in a difficult situation during the past two years," said Blatter.

"And together you have overcome all these difficulties and now you are in this situation where you are going to have a restart. But I would identify this restart as an intermediary restart because then the right start will be in two years in 2015 ... you have two more 

Goal line technology a waste of millions of euros: Platini

Kuala Lumpur: Even as world body FIFA seems to slowly embrace goal line technology, UEFA chief Michel Platini rejected it insisting it is unnecessary waste of millions of euros. Platini, on a visit to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) house in Kuala Lumpur Tuesday, simply replied "No" when asked if he had changed his mind on the goal line technology, reports Xinhua. He said at a press conference after signing...  

Japan's Kagawa named AFC Player of the Year

Kuala Lumpur: Japanese playmaker Shinji Kagawa won the inaugural Asian Football Confederation (AFC) International Player-of-the-Year award on Thursday. The 23-year-old Manchester United midfielder beat Japan team-mate Yuto Nagatomo of Inter Milan and Australia's veteran goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer of Fulham to the award in Kuala Lumpur. Kagawa produced a number of impressive displays earlier in the year as Borussia Dortmund claimed the Bundesliga title before he moved to England where he...  

FIFA extend Bin Hammam's suspension

London: FIFA has extended the provisional ban on former presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam for another 45 days, the Qatari's lawyers have said. Bin Hammam had a lifetime ban overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in July but was suspended again one week later, this time for a provisional period of 90 days, as FIFA announced a fresh probe by its ethics investigator Michael Garcia. Now the...