KARACHI: The AFC Legal Committee on Tuesday proposed the unification of the position of AFC president and FIFA vice-president at its meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) president Faisal Saleh Hayat chaired the eighth meeting of the committee at the AFC House which also proposed amendments in the AFC statutes and regulations governing admission of football associations to Asia’s football governing body.

All these proposals await approval by Executive Committee meeting scheduled to be held on Wednesday before AFC’s major congress meeting in Sao Paulo on June 9.

The AFC has been looking into electoral reforms which would see the AFC president secure an automatic place on FIFA’s Executive Committee. At present, FIFA ExCo seats are allotted via a separate poll.

In an interview last month, AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa admitted his body was “looking into” the possibility of the continental body’s chief “automatically being an ExCo member if not a FIFA Vice President as well” as it will be “in the interest of Asian football”.

The move, however, is seen by many observers as Sheikh Salman trying to increase his power-base within both AFC and FIFA.