25/ 26 February 2016

BAHRAIN MEDIA ROUNDUP

seeking to win his first term.

Fifas new dawn already

under a cloud as unease
over Sheikh Salman
grows
The names have changed
but the game remains the
same. Despite the arrests,
the indictments, the $200m
in kickbacks and bribes, the
suspensions and the bans
this Fifa election is still being
played by the old rules.

Prince Ali bin al-Hussein,

the Jordanian candidate
whose votes are likely to
decide this election between
Sheikh Salman and his
Uefa challenger, Gianni
Infantino, in the later
rounds of Fridays secret
ballot of 207 members, has
been telling anyone that will
listen that the campaign has
been conducted according
to the rules of old Fifa.

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As the executive board

of the Confederation of
African Football met in
Rwanda three weeks ago
to anoint Sheikh Salman
bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, the
Bahraini Asian Football
Confederation president, as
its chosen one for the Fifa
presidency, it could have
been a scene from 18 years
ago when Sepp Blatter was

FIFA members are due to

elect a new president and to
pass reforms they hope will
open an escape route from
a scandal symbolised by the
downfall of Sepp Blatter.
The result appears uncertain
in the lead-up to Friday's
vote and experts say that
football's leaders will not be
able to escape multinational
corruption investigations,
even with a new president.
The landmark presidential
contest has become an
Asia-versus-Europe battle
between Bahrain's Sheikh
Salman bin Ebrahim Al
Khalifa and Swiss UEFA

FIFA election: Moment

of truth looms for Arab
hopefuls
ZURICH - In the midafternoon gloom, there
was little indication that
this Swiss city was about to
become the focus of a global
sporting storm, as two
Arab candidates join others
battling to become the head
of global football.
The only visible sign bearing
FIFA's branding discreetly
pointed delegates to their
appropriate
entrances.
There were no red carpets,
no outside broadcast units,
little sense that this was
about to become the arena
where the future of the

general secretary
Infantino.

FIFA set to elect new

president

world's biggest sport will be

decided.

Al Jazeera's Lee Wellings,

reporting from Munich, said
Friday would be "a long day"
for the 207 FIFA delegates.

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The
consequences
of
what happens on Friday
where all eyes will be on
Hallenstadion in Zurich will have a huge impact on
the game and may even save
FIFA from being broken up.

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chance to save itself from

extinction.

Gianni

But former FIFA vice

president Prince Ali bin al
Hussein is aiming to upset
the odds, and received a
boost on Friday with the
backing of the United States
and Australia. Outsiders
Jerome Champagne, an exFIFA official, and South
African
tycoon
Tokyo
Sexwale, have also been
pleading their cause to
more than 200 delegates in
Zurich.

But such are the ways of

sporting elections, where
most business is conducted
behind closed doors. For
now it is Zurichs hotel
lobbies and suites where
furious lobbying is taking
place to decide who will
become the new head of
footballs scandal-hit world
governing body.

Greg Dyke: Fifa cannot

have another 'cult' leader
like Sepp Blatter
Sepp Blatters disgraced
reign as Fifa president will
finally come to an end on
Friday but Greg Dyke issued
a damning verdict on the
world governing bodys
commitment to a fresh
start on Thursday night by
claiming that the Swisss
cult following would still
sweep him to victory if he
stood for election.
Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim
al-Khalifa was on course to
succeed Blatter on Thursday
as Dyke, the Football
Association
chairman,
arrived in Zurich for the
climax of the battle for the
most powerful job in football
and
an
extraordinary
congress billed as Fifas last

Judging by the election

campaign which draws to a
close on Friday, not even its
worst crisis has eradicated
the culture which flourished
under Blatter, from whose
playbook most of the
candidates have drawn in
the clamour for votes.
Dyke cast major doubt
on whether Fifa was even
capable of meaningful
change, warning: I think
there are quite a lot of
people in football who will
never get it.

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REPORTERS
WITHOUT BORDERS
CALLS ON FIFA NOT
TO ELECT BAHRAINS
SHEIKH SALMAN AS
PRESIDENT
Reporters Without Borders
calls on the members of
World Soccer Association
FIFA to decide against
Bahrains candidate Sheikh
Salman
Bin
Ibrahim
Al Khalifa as its future
president.
Upcoming
Friday, the national member
associations
decide
in
Zurich who of the five
candidates will be the future
FIFA president.
"Sheikh Salman is completely
inacceptable as the top
representative of world
soccer", said RSF Germanys
executive director Christian

Mihr. "As a member of

Bahrains royal Family,
Salman represents a regime
that has been mercilessly
repressing Journalists and
critical bloggers for years.
Salmans candidacy is an
obvious attempt by Bahrain
to
exploit
world-class
sports for cultivating its
international image while at
the same time persecuting
critics in its own country.

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the kingdom of Bahrain",

BNA said.

Bahrain jails four men

on terrorism charges:
prosecutor
A Bahraini court sentenced
four people to five years in
prison for plotting to receive
explosives and weapons
training to carry out attacks
in the Gulf Arab kingdom,
the public prosecutor said in
a statement on Thursday.
According to the statement
carried by state news
agency BNA, several wanted
Bahrainis have fled to Iraq
and are attempting to lure
other nationals to militant
training camps.
Two of the suspects were
convicted of facilitating the
travel plans of the other two
for the purpose of "carrying
out terrorist crimes inside

Bahrain
has
reported
a growing number of
attacks using home-made
explosives in the last two
years and has accused Iran
and its allies in the Shi'ite
Lebanese militant group
Hezbollah of sponsoring the
plots.
The country, which hosts
the U.S. Fifth Fleet, has
experienced sporadic unrest
since mass protests in 2011
led by majority Shi'ite
Muslims demanding more
rights and reforms and a
bigger role in the Sunni-led
government.

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