Worawi confident of getting Asia's backing to become soccer chief
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Football Association of Thailand president Worawi Makudi is confident of securing the 24 members' votes he needs in order to become head of the Asian Football Confederation in May.
Having secured backing from 11 members of the Asean Football Federation to run for Asian football president in the May 2 election, Worawi is convinced he can secure a majority vote to take over the post left vacant following the lifetime ban given to previous incumbent Mohamed bin Hammam.
“At the moment, I have 11 votes from the AFF nations plus another from Australia. Now, I’ll seek support from other countries. I think I can get more than 24 of the 46 votes, which would be enough to win the post,” said the Thai FA boss, who also sits on Fifa’s powerful 24-man executive committee.
“I have had initial talks with other countries. They all promised to support me so I feel relieved and confident that I will become the new AFC president.”
Among those Worawi has approached for their backing are South Asian members.
But South Asia’s regional body revealed last week it had yet to decide on who to back in the poll for the AFC post, which is currently held by China’s Zhang Jilong in a caretaker capacity.
“He called me and we had a chat,” South Asian Football Federation president Kazi Salahuddin told Reuters, without revealing details of his discussion with the Thai FA boss.
“We will have to see which way the wind blows. We have not yet decided whom to support. We’ll have to see the final list and think what would be good for South Asian football. The election is in May, so we have some time before that. Maybe we’ll have a meeting in mid-April where we’ll decide.”
