Asian football braces for showdown

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -The Kuwait Football Association said Thursday it has been barred from voting in the election to decide Asia's representative on the FIFA executive committee.

"Kuwait FA has been barred from voting'' by the Asian Football Confederation executive committee, which met in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, said the KFA said in a statement.

The AFC did not immediately confirm the development but said a statement would be issued later.

There was no word whether the executive committee of the 46-nation AFC had decided if Mongolia, East Timor, Afghanistan and Laos have the right to vote in the election.

AFC president Mohammed Bin Hammam, who is standing for election Friday, caused an uproar when he barred the five countries from the vote, and subsequently ignored a FIFA directive that they are eligible.

Hammam's challenger, Bahraini prince Sheik Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, said Hammam is trying to block their participation in the election because he fears they would vote against him. Hammam, a Qatari who is often tipped as a successor to FIFA president Sepp Blatter, denies the accusations, saying the ban was on procedural grounds.

Hammam says Kuwait is ineligible to vote as it was being run by an interim body, while the other four countries were barred because of their non-participation in regional competitions over the past two years. The orders were issued by AFC's legal committee, which is hand-picked by Hammam.

At stake is more than just a position on FIFA's board.

Hammam has said that if he loses the vote - which coincides with his 60th birthday - he will also stand down as president of the AFC.

The controversy has split the AFC. Last week, 24 members wrote to FIFA, urging it to monitor the election saying they feared Hammam would manipulate it.

"Asia was always united and there was strong cooperation (among members). But today our federation is divided and it is not the real spirit of Asia,'' Sheik Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, president of the Kuwait Football Association told reporters Wednesday.

Sheik Ahmad had been a key figure in the election campaign. He is also president of the Olympic Council of Asia, which Hammam has accused of trying to use grants to influence its members to vote for Salman.

Sheik Ahmad told reporters that such an "undemocratic'' ruling, barring his vote, and a heated election campaign had hurt Asian football.

It has caused "a lot of damage. Delegates from all other organizations will come (for the congress). If they see like this in Asia, of course this is bad for the reputation for Asia.''

Among the issues affecting member countries at the congress will be attempts to move the AFC headquarters from Kuala Lumpur to Qatar.

Hammam claims that FIFA vice president Chung Mong-joon of South Korea is bankrolling Sheik Salman. Hammam says that if he is ousted from the FIFA executive committee, Chung would have one less rival to worry about in his bid to become FIFA president.