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Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim al Khalifa isn’t the first Asian football chief to aspire to run FIFA, but with his powerful backers and opportunistic timing he could be the first to succeed.

The soft-spoken Bahraini royal took over an Asian confederation in turmoil after Mohamed bin Hammam was kicked out in disgrace, and now enjoys an iron grip on the body.

It’s a trick he may now want to repeat at FIFA, roiled by wave after wave of scandal which have prompted some to call for a complete overhaul of its structures and governance.

Shaikh Salman’s expected bid comes just four years after bin Hammam’s attempt to topple FIFA chief Sepp Blatter in 2011 ended in accusations of bribery and a ban from football.

But the situation is now very different. Blatter, suspended and facing criminal charges, is on his way out and many of the old guard are trapped in the wreckage as his regime collapses.

Critically, Shaikh Salman is supported by Kuwaiti powerbroker Sheikh Ahmad al Fahad al Sabah, one of the most influential figures in world sport and a major player in both FIFA and the Olympic movement.

Sheikh Ahmad was a key backer when Shaikh Salman swept to power at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) by a landslide in 2013, promising to wipe the slate clean after the bin Hammam years.

“I think what we need is some stability,” Shaikh Salman told AFP at the time. “Everybody has suffered in the past two years, we’ve had all this talk and uncertainty on the organisational level.”

– Bahrain crackdown –

Shaikh Salman’s election win followed a bruising campaign in which he was accused of human rights abuses over a round-up of football players and officials during Bahrain’s 2011 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. He said there was no evidence for the claim.

This year, he was re-elected unopposed for a full, four-year term and became a FIFA vice president into the bargain, assuming the post previously held by his rival and FIFA candidate Prince Ali bin al Hussein of Jordan.

A tougher style was also evident at the AFC congress — held in Shaikh Salman’s power base of Bahrain — as he silenced a South Korean protest and did not allow any speakers from the floor.

The Manchester United fan has come a long way after drifting between careers and eventually finding his way into sports administration.

Shaikh Salman, now 49, lived and studied accountancy in London before dropping out in the mid-1980s, and once also worked as a customs officer in Bahrain.

In 1992, in his late twenties, he graduated with a degree in English literature and history from the University of Bahrain but then moved into the “family business” of construction, real estate and import-export.

It was not until 1998 that he joined Bahrain’s football body as vice president, reprising his involvement in a sport he played to youth team level with Riffa Club in Bahrain Division One.

He became president of the Bahrain football association in 2002 and made an unsuccessful bid for the AFC leadership in 2009, losing out to Qatar’s bin Hammam — who accused Sheikh Ahmad’s Olympic Council of Asia of trying to influence the vote.

Despite allegations about bin Hammam in the bidding process for the 2022 World Cup, Shaikh Salman is a staunch supporter of Qatar as hosts and he chaired the FIFA taskforce which advised holding the tournament in November-December, to avoid the summer heat.

bur/th/jom

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