FAT president's election set for October 7
The long overdue election for the Football Association of Thailand's president's post will take place on October 7 after the warring factions reached an agreement over the number of voting members.
The association had failed to conduct the election despite incumbent Worawi Makudi’s third successive two-year mandate ending in mid-June.
According to Fifa, the association needed to get approval for its revised regulations, which were to be in line with the world soccer’s governing body’s new statues, and conduct the election.
However, a dispute over the number of club members eligible to vote had become a stumbling block in the process of approving the amended rules. Yesterday, the relevant parties reached an agreement on the issue at a meeting.
“We accepted 72 as the number of clubs eligible to vote. It was the number stated in the amendments to the association’s regulations. We made some changes to the criteria in selecting those clubs from each competition,” said Virach Chanpanich, one of the candidates running for the presidency, who previously opposed the proposed number of 72 voting members.
“We maintain that the Thai Premier League and League One (the country’s second-tier league) have 18 clubs each plus the winners and runners-up from each of the three bottom rung leagues.
“The only change we made was in the method of selecting the five clubs from the 30 clubs in the six regional leagues.”
The Thai football authorities set the day for election on October 7. The date overshoots the September deadline set by Fifa. Worawi, who also sits on the executive committee of the sport’s governing body, said he would try to seek a compromise with Fifa.
“It now looks impossible that we could get things done within Fifa’s deadline but we’ll try to reach a compromise. I think they would agree on our request to move the deadline back for a few more weeks,” said Worawi.
