Candidate for Thai FA chief pleads with Fifa

Pattaya FC secured an injunction that forced the cancellation of an FA meeting on Saturday that was due to vote on a rule revision in line with Fifa’s new statutes.

The fourth-tier club made the move fearing that the revision would effectively cut the number of members eligible to vote in the impending election brought by the end of president Worawi Makudi’s third two-year mandate on Sunday. 

The world soccer governing body, though, deemed the Thai club’s action as a breach of its rules and said that if they did not withdraw the suit by Monday, the  association could face immediate and indefinite suspension.

But Pattaya have already publicly reiterated they will not budge from their stance, despite facing pressure in the form of death threats. The stand-off leaves all Thai teams at risk of being suspended from international contact as well as any activities and competitions organised by Fifa and the Asian Football Confederation.

Pinit, one of two candidates along with Virat Chanpanich to challenge Worawi for the FA presidency, yesterday wrote a letter to high-ranking Fifa officials including president Sepp Blatter and general secretary Jerome Valcke, trying to convince them not to suspend the country. He backed up his petition with three core contentions. First, that there had not been enough discussion among stakeholders of the FA’s draft statute, especially regarding the validation of voting members. Second, that the date set for the FA’s congress to adopt the new statutes was too close to when Worawi’s tenure as president expired. And, finally, that there was a question mark over the number of voting members and the method used to select them.