Prince Ali is concerned that a newly announced four-year ‘memorandum of understanding’ (MOU) between the two, which the parties have said is to improve the “development of football in the two confederations”, is a way of engineering a “bloc vote” in the forthcoming Fifa election.
AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa is one of those standing against Prince Ali when Sepp Blatter’s replacement is chosen on February 26 and is heavily involved in the agreement, citing a “memorable day” in a statement on Caf’s official website.
But citing a possible breach of rules, Prince Ali said in a statement of his own: “I am concerned that there has been an attempt to breach electoral rules in the Fifa Presidential election. I have written to the Fifa Ad Hoc Electoral Committee informing them of my concerns and asking them to examine the matter.
“I have always promoted cross-regional understanding, however, the timing of this MOU between the AFC and the Caf looks like a blatant attempt to engineer a bloc vote.
“Africa’s proud football associations are not for sale and development resources belonging to national football associations should not be used by presidential candidates and confederation presidents for political expediency.
“Questions must be asked: was this deal approved by the members of the executive committees of both the AFC and Caf and is the timing of the announcement, prior to a presidential election, acceptable?
“Now more than ever, this apparent exploitation of confederation resources shows the world that the actions of individuals must stop bringing Fifa into disrepute.”
Prince Ali launched his new manifesto in London last week, announcing that he wants to bring in tougher new rules on World Cup bidding, similar to that used by the International Olympic Committee.
Prince Ali claims AFC and CAF deal is “blatant attempt” to secure bloc vote for FIFA President rival Shaikh Salman
It was signed in Rwanda by CAF and acting FIFA President, Issa Hayatou, and Shaikh Salman.
With the CAF boasting 54 National Associations and the AFC 46, a bloc vote in favour of a candidate would take them close to the required winning margin with a total of 209 votes available.
During the 2015 FIFA election in May, the vast majority of both confederations opted to back Sepp Blatter, who eventually defeated Prince Ali by a margin of 133-73.
Source: African News Agency (ANA)
