Sheik Salman elected president of Asian football

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Sheik Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa of Bahrain won a landslide victory to be elected president of the Asian Football Confederation on Thursday, replacing his longtime rival Mohamed bin Hammam.

A half hour later, he also won the vote for the vacant seat on FIFA's executive committee, inflicting a stunning defeat on the Qatar World Cup organizing chief Hassan Al Thawadi, taking 28 votes against 18 for his rival.

In election for president, Sheik Salman comprehensively defeated two bin Hammam allies — Yousuf al-Serkal of the United Arab Emirates and Thailand's Worawi Makudi — in a poll of 46 member federations.

Sheik Salman got 33 votes in the first ballot, having needed 31 for outright victory. Makudi got seven votes and al-Serkal six.

When Sheik Salman's presidential vote tally was announced, his supporters' cheers in the ballroom of a Kuala Lumpur hotel drowned out the announcement of his rivals' totals.

The Bahraini royal was elected despite criticism since 2011 that he didn't do enough to protect national team players from human rights abuses during pro-democracy protests in the island nation.

Thursday's election formally replaced Qatari official bin Hammam, expelled from football by FIFA for alleged corruption.

Sheik Salman gets 20 months in office to complete what was originally supposed to be bin Hammam's presidential mandate. The next scheduled election is in January 2015, ahead of the Asian Cup in Australia.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter cautioned before voting that Asian football had more work to do before then to heal its divisions and rebuild its reputation.

"I would identify this restart as an intermediary restart," Blatter said. "Because then the right start will be in two years in 2015 and now you will have two more years to put your house in such an order."

Sheik Salman's victory comes exactly four years after bin Hammam suffered a setback in the same city, which precipitated his rapid fall from power.

Then, bin Hammam retained his FIFA board seat by just two votes after a bitterly fought contest marred by accusations of vote-buying on both sides, plus undue influence on the Bahraini's behalf by Olympic officials across Asia.

This election saw similar sniping. The Kuwaiti head of the Olympic Council of Asia, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, was seen as a key figure in Sheik Salman's camp, alleging that bin Hammam broke the terms of his FIFA ban by lobbying for his friends.

To increase transparency Thursday, the 46 voters wrote their ballots in open booths on the main stage.

Since FIFA first suspended bin Hammam in May 2011 for alleged election bribery, Chinese official Zhang Jilong had served as interim AFC leader.