Football Association of Thailand president Worawi Makudi admitted his shock at an embarrassing defeat in his bid to become the new president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) yesterday.
The Thai FA boss secured just seven votes in the AFC presidential election in Kuala Lumpur, which saw Sheik Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa of Bahrain gain 33 votes to succeed the disgraced Mohamed bin Hammam, who received a lifetime ban from Fifa for bribery and corruption in 2011.
Half an hour after being voted in as AFC president, the Bahraini also won the vote for the vacant seat on Fifa's executive committee, inflicting defeat on Qatar World Cup organising chief Hassan Al Thawadi by 28 votes to 18.
Heading into the poll in confident mood after reportedly securing the backing of 11 AFC members in the Southeast Asia region, Worawi was left embarrassed by the paltry tally he received from the 47-member confederation.
"I never expected it would turn out like this. I got promises of support from our [Asean] group. But, there have been internal changes in many of those countries, and we saw the result of that today.
"It's a lesson that we cannot read people's minds. I'll analyse all the factors to see why it happened and get back to work again. I'll take it as a learning experience. I don't know whether I will run for this post again," said a disappointed Worawi.
Fifa President Sepp Blatter suggested that Sheik Salman's second victory was required by protocol, rather than a snub for Qatar.
"[Tomorrow] they will change the statutes and you will see that they will introduce that the president of the confederation must have a seat" on the Fifa board, Blatter told reporters. "They did it already today." Sheik Salman got 33 votes in the first ballot, having needed 31 for outright victory. Makudi got seven votes and al-Serkal six.
The Bahraini royal was elected despite criticism since 2011 that he didn't do enough to protect national team players from human rights abuses during pro-democracy protests in the island nation.
Still, Sheik Salman's football career had already prospered despite the turmoil in Bahrain. In late-2011, Fifa and the AFC agreed to appoint him to the 2014 World Cup organising committee based in Zurich.
"Now it's my personal duty and moral obligation to lead and reunite our family," Sheik Salman told delegates in his acceptance speech. "We have to ensure AFC funds, your funds, are being managed according to good principles."
Sheik Salman gets 20 months in office to complete what was originally supposed to be bin Hammam's presidential mandate. The next scheduled election is in January 2015, ahead of the Asian Cup in Australia.
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Article source: http://www.thethailandlinks.com/2013/05/03/worawi-baffled-by-election-loss/
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