KARACHI: Despite strong opposition from Europe’s football governing body UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) continues to back Sepp Blatter.

FIFA president Blatter announced earlier this week his intention to run for a fifth, four-year term in-charge of world football in a video speech at the Soccerex Global Convention in Manchester.

The 78-year-old, who has been the leader of world football since 1998, has been widely criticized for widespread corruption in word football’s governing body, most notably in the awarding of the 2022 FIFA World Cup to Qatar, during his time in-charge of FIFA.

Several AFC member associations, including the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF), were named in a wide-ranging investigative report by the Sunday Times in June regarding allegations of vote-buying in the lead up to the vote for hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup.

The president of the AFC, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, however is backing the embattled Swiss ahead of the secret ballot for the FIFA presidency in May next year.

“In the recent AFC Congress in Brazil, there was a strong sense of support for the FIFA President, and Sepp Blatter himself has shown great support for the Asian Football Confederation,” the AFC chief, who will also run for re-election as the head of Asian football next year, told Dawn in a statement on Saturday.

“I truly believe that the Confederation and Mr. Blatter have been working well together and I have every confidence that this mutual co-operation will continue for as long as he holds the position of FIFA President.”

The AFC Extraordinary Congress in Sao Paulo, days before the World Cup in Brazil which was attended by Blatter, saw Asia’s football governing body changing its statutes so that the title of FIFA vice-president now automatically goes to the AFC president.

Previously, AFC members used to vote for Asia’s representative as FIFA vice-president.

The current FIFA vice-president from the AFC is Jordan’s Prince Ali bin Al-Hussain, who has been quite vocal about including term-limits in FIFA and has said he ‘hopes’ for real candidates after Blatter leaves.

“He has the full right to stand again and that looks to be what he has in mind,” Prince Ali, who will run for a seat from AFC in the FIFA Executive Committee next year, said at the Soccerex Global Convention.

“But the process of reform within FIFA needs to continue and eventually we should look at instigating term limits and maybe not just for the FIFA president but also for executive committee members as well, including myself.

“It’s obvious that it looks like Blatter will be back for the next four years. I’m looking down the line after four years to have some real candidates, real candidates who run on an agenda and a mandate.”

Published in Dawn, September 14th , 2014