AFC chief calls for end to political meddling, corruption

Mohamed Bin Hammam, president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), said there was no place for politics in soccer and match-fixing needed to be wiped out.

“Political and vested interests must be completely eliminated from the statutes of all AFC member associations,” said Bin Hammam.

In comments posted on the AFC’s Web site (www.the-afc.com), he said all soccer federations needed an “independent, transparent and democratic system to introduce transparency”.

Asian soccer has been plagued by political meddling, with several countries threatened with international bans for refusing to allow their national federations to work freely.

Iran this year ended a lengthy dispute by agreeing to bar vice president Mohammad Aliabadi from taking the top post in Iranian soccer, while Indonesia still allows jailed politician Nurdin Halid to run its federation from inside a prison cell.

Bin Hammam said the AFC would make tackling corruption its priority.

“Corruption and match-fixing in the Asian game remain prime concerns,” he said. “The AFC will do everything in its power to root out this scourge. The game’s integrity is (our) utmost priority.”

Despite vowing to crack down on match-fixing, Vietnam is still struggling to tackle soccer corruption, while there are concerns about possible involvement of bookmakers in the Malaysian game, which was rife with problems in the 1990s.