Worawi back as soccer chief
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The long-drawn-out saga of the Thai Football Association's presidential election came to a conclusion yesterday, with Worawi Makudi winning a fourth consecutive term.
Perhaps the most incident-packed election in the association’s history, the poll was plagued by controversy after being postponed from its original date in mid-June when Worawi’s third two-year mandate expired.
And the saga had one final twist yesterday, before Worawi – who also sits on Fifa’s executive committee – emerged victorious over sole challenger Virach Chanpanich to retain a post he has held since 2007.
Ahead of the ballot yesterday, uncertainty lingered over which representatives held the voting rights for six of the 72 member clubs, and whether any of the clubs would be disqualified from the poll. The appeal panel of the FA’s Electoral Committee announced its decision on each case just hours ahead of the start of voting, confirming that all six clubs would be allowed to vote.
The poll was conducted under new rules, with all of 19 FA administrative posts up for grabs, rather than just the role of president, as in previous elections. One of the key changes to voting procedures was the enforcement of a secret ballot.
Ronnarit Suewaja, Muangthong United voting representative as the Thai Premier League club’s director, hoped whoever won the poll would work in the best interest of Thai football.
Voting was delayed for nearly two hours as representatives from each of the six clubs wrangled over whether to appeal the earlier decision on which of them had voting rights. It took the intervention of a Fifa official attending the election as observer to settle the issue by adjudicating they had no right to appeal. The voting then got underway.
Chada Thaiseth, Uthaithani Forest club president and one of candidates for board post on Virach’s list, caused a stir by leaving the room before the start of the third round of voting for the 13 administrative-board posts. He had decided to abstain from voting, saying he would be unable to work with Worawi-aligned candidates if he did win a seat.
The vote count eventually saw Worawi prevail 42-28, with one invalid vote and one abstention.
