Source: Ma Dexing Dexing Society
On May 16 and 17, the 34th AFC General Assembly and the 74th FIFA General Assembly were held in Bangkok, Thailand. The delegation of the Chinese Football Association, headed by Song Kai, chairman of the Chinese Football Association, attended the two meetings. From the perspective of the topic and process of the meeting, it seems that it has little to do with Chinese football. After all, the AFC has decided to add two executive committee members at the beginning of this year. The most important thing of the FIFA meeting is to determine the host place of the 10th Women's World Cup in 2027. China is only responsible for voting because it has not bid to host it. However, judging from the information delivered during the two meetings, one reality that we have to face is that the future development of Chinese football will be more difficult.
(AFC President Salman is expected to continue his fourth term of office.)
① Adding two executive members is not the core
On May 16, at the 34th AFC General Assembly, an important topic was to add two executive members. The final result was that Mahmadalieva, a female official from the Tajik Football Association, was elected as the female executive committee of Central Asia; Zheng Mengkui, chairman of the Korean Football Association, became the executive member of East Asia. So far, the Executive Committee composed of 30 members has been fully staffed, and the term of office of all executive members is 2027.
Those who do not know the situation may raise the question that the Chinese Football Association is located in the East Asia region. At the 33rd Asian Football Association General Assembly held in Bahrain on February 1, 2023, no one from the Chinese Football Association will enter the Executive Committee of the Asian Football Association. This addition clearly represents a good opportunity. Why does the Chinese Football Association not strive for it? This is actually a misunderstanding. Because the issue of supplement is not temporary, but has been issued by the AFC in the second half of last year, and ended on November 30 last year. At that time, Zheng Mengkui was already the only candidate in East Asia. To some extent, at that time, Zheng Mengkui had already become an executive member of the AFC Executive Committee, and this AFC congress was just "performing the formal procedures".
Therefore, at this meeting, Zheng Mengkui and the female representatives of the Tajik Football Association officially became executive members of the Executive Committee of the Asian Football Association, which is not a further loss of the Chinese Football Association in football diplomacy, but a continuation of the overall football diplomacy of Chinese football over the past period of time. In addition, during this meeting, Song Kai also met and communicated with officials of the international football world and leaders of member associations of the Asian Football Association as much as possible to enhance understanding.
In fact, one situation that really makes the Chinese Football Association and even the whole Chinese football need to further study and ponder, and needs to come up with specific countermeasures is that the AFC Constitution was revised and successfully passed at this AFC Congress, which led to the "complete westward tilt" of the pattern and situation of the entire Asian football world, while the reality of "differentiation" has emerged in East Asia. In this new situation of football diplomacy, how should the Chinese Football Association and Chinese football deal with it?
② Amendment of the Articles of Association Cancellation of the Second Term
During the AFC Congress, one issue that should be paid more attention is the revision of the AFC Constitution!
The 14th topic of the meeting was to propose amendments to Articles 8 and 9 of Chapter 32 of the original AFC Constitution. According to the original articles of association, the term of office of an elected executive member in the AFC Executive Committee is four years, and can only be three full terms at most, excluding those newly elected in a cycle. Moreover, if elected as the president of the Asian Football Federation, a term of office is also four years, and can only be three full terms at most. If elected in a cycle, it is also not included.
This provision was put forward and implemented in the era of former AFC President Hamann. Of course, Haman was later suspended by FIFA due to his involvement in the scandal of Qatar's bid for the World Cup and left the post of president of AFC. Salman, the current president of the Asian Football Association and a Bahraini, was elected in May 2013 to succeed Haman, and his term of office will last until May 2015. At the AFC congress in May 2015, Salman was re elected and re elected at the AFC congress in 2019 and 2023.
According to the original articles of association of AFC, the two years from 2013 to 2015 are only supplementary elections, which cannot be regarded as a complete cycle; After three complete cycles of 2015 to 2019, 2019 to 2023, and 2023 to 2027, Salman will no longer be able to continue to serve as the president of AFC. Therefore, by 2027, the AFC will need to elect a new chairman.
However, under this general background, at this meeting, several representatives of the West Asian Football Association proposed a motion to amend the Articles of Association, demanding that the provision of "the term of office shall not exceed three terms" in the Articles of Association be cancelled. That is to say, Salman can continue to run for the presidency of the Asian Football Association and will probably be elected after the expiration of three terms of office in 2027!
Moreover, it is clear from this conference that the motion was proposed by the Lebanese Football Association, Qatar Football Association, Uzbekistan Football Association and Saudi Football Association. According to the provisions of the AFC Constitution, as long as a motion is proposed by a football association of one country or region and supported by at least two countries or football associations, the AFC shall submit it to the general meeting for discussion and voting. The Lebanese Football Association that proposed the motion was supported by the Iraqi Football Association and the Syrian Football Association; Uzbekistan Football Association from Central Asia is supported by Afghanistan Football Association and Iran Football Association; Qatar Football Association is supported by Nepal Football Association from South Asia and Vietnam Football Association from Southeast Asia; The Saudi Football Association is supported by the Korean Football Association from East Asia and the Lao Football Association from Southeast Asia. Twelve football associations proposed to amend the Articles of Association, and the Asian Football Association certainly needs to submit it to the congress for voting.
The final voting result was that 43 representatives of the Asian Football Association voted in favour, 2 abstained and 2 opposed of the 47 member associations affiliated to the Asian Football Association. The Australian Football Association and the Jordanian Football Association clearly voted against it. According to the relevant provisions in the Articles of Association of the Asian Football Association, the voting involving amendments to the Articles of Association must exceed two thirds of the number of representatives present, that is, 34 votes. The result of 43 votes certainly means that the motion to amend the Articles of Association has been passed.
This is of course the most ideal result for the current chairman Salman, because it means that he will be able to hold at least another term of AFC president until 2031 after 2027. In particular, Salman in 1965 may not have too many problems even if he is re elected to 2035, and he will not be 70 years old when he expires. But behind this is not necessarily the layout that Salman himself planned. After all, behind the Arab forces, the real master is Saudi Arabia.
③ West Asia Completely Dominates Asian Football
Originally, with the overall tilt of Asian football power, the international environment for the survival of Chinese football has become increasingly complex and difficult. But this time, the rule that "the maximum term of the chairman cannot exceed three terms" has been canceled. Especially in this behind the scenes fight, even the neighboring South Korea has turned to Saudi Arabia and West Asian forces. In a short time, If the international living environment of Chinese football wants to change, I'm afraid it can only be more difficult.
Looking back at the development process of Asian football in the past 20 years, the whole Asian football world has changed from "confrontation between East and West" to "West Asia has the upper hand", and now it can be said that West Asia has completely dominated. East Asia has been difficult to pose a threat to West Asia in the future. This has been fully demonstrated since China was forced to abandon the 2023 Asian Cup. Under the circumstances at that time, it was reasonable for South Korea to take over the 2023 Asian Cup, and the Korean Football Association's initiative to take over was fully supported by the President of South Korea and the government. From the perspective of the "East West Asia rotation" of the Asian Cup, if the 2023 Asian Cup could not be undertaken due to China's objective reasons after the 2019 Asian Cup was held in the United Arab Emirates, It is also reasonable to transfer South Korea to East Asia. However, under the leadership of the Western Asian forces, especially Qatar and Saudi Arabia, under the pattern of bidding for the 2027 Asian Cup, the Western Asian forces colluded from top to bottom, allowing Qatar to take over the 2023 Asian Cup in advance, and Saudi Arabia to successfully win the right to host the 2027 Asian Cup. This means that if the East Asian region wants to host the Asian Cup, it will wait until at least 2031.
Saudi Arabia, the biggest power in West Asia, flirted with FIFA president because of Fantino, and finally solved the 2034 World Cup ahead of schedule. In addition, at the FIFA Congress held in Bangkok, another congress was adopted to determine the constitution of the right to host two World Cups. At the beginning, Ivantino used anti-corruption to oust former President Blatter, and then passed a FIFA General Assembly to determine the host place of only one World Cup. Now during his term of office, he returned to the original permission to determine the host place of the two World Cups. The Saudis have once again staged a good show in the international football world that "money can make the devil go around".
Not only that, since the 2024-25 season, that is, the second half of this year, the three new men's football club events jointly promoted by the Asian Football Association have completely revised their logos. The new logos are almost full of Arab elements, which can not show and represent the whole Asia. And the competition of the final stage of the highest level "Asian Championship Elite League" will be arranged by the AFC in Saudi Arabia consecutively.
(The logo of the new AFC club event is full of Arab elements, and cannot represent Asia at all)
In other words, almost all Asian events in the future have been monopolized by Arab countries. Although Australia will host the next Asian Women's Football Cup in 2026, the level of Arab women's football cannot be compared with that of East Asia, so these Arab countries did not bother to bid for it. For example, Saudi Arabia originally intended to bid for the 2026 Women's Asian Cup, but because the Australian Football Association had given up the right to host the 2034 World Cup, Saudi Arabia voluntarily gave up its bid for the 2026 Women's Asian Cup, and then launched Uzbekistan to host the 2029 Women's Asian Cup. However, the "ambition" of Saudi Arabia is not small. If it can successfully win the right to host the 2034 World Cup at the next FIFA Congress in December this year, Saudi Arabia will intend to bid for the 2031 Women's World Cup!
Now, with the success of the AFC's revision of its constitution, it is almost certain that Salman will continue to serve as the president of the AFC. To some extent, this is also the advance layout of Western Asian forces. As normal, after Salman's term of office expires, it may be difficult for the entire Asian football world to launch another candidate that can be accepted and accepted by all parties in the short term. Moreover, both Saudi Arabia and Qatar are "thoughtful". However, if you come out and announce the election directly, whether it is Saudi Arabia or Qatar, I am afraid that it will make all parties unhappy again. As a buffer, Salman is a candidate acceptable to all parties. It is also under this circumstance that the Qatar Football Association and the Saudi Football Association proposed to amend the Articles of Association, which actually shows that all forces have reached some "tacit understanding" behind the scenes.
④ East Asia needs to reunify
In fact, the name of the Korean Football Association (KFA) was the real surprise in the motion to amend the AFC president's term limit. As we all know, the reason why Asian football has been able to present the pattern of "confrontation between East and West" in the past is that the East Asian forces led by China, Japan and South Korea are relatively united. The typical product of this period is the "A3 League". But now, with the growing development of Japanese football, it seems that Japanese football has long been out of Asia. With its hard power, both men and women, the goal of Japanese football is to aim at the world. Therefore, the Japan Football Association has no intention of getting involved in the various internal struggles of the AFC, not to mention the fact that the AFC, including the West Asian forces, cannot help because of its hard power.
In contrast, Korean football also has some hard power. However, as the chairman of the Korean Football Association, Zheng Mengkui is not popular in the Asian football diplomatic arena, let alone in the Korean domestic football world, there are many demands for his "dismissal". Previously, Zheng Mengkui had successively participated in the election for the Asian membership of the FIFA Council and suffered repeated setbacks. In fact, this has explained the problem. Moreover, Zheng Mengkui's consistent practice is to "fight against" forces led by Saudi Arabia. To some extent, this is also a continuation of the original practice of Zheng Mengzhun's tenure.
(Korean Football Association President Zheng Mengkui (right) talks with Saudi Football Association President Meshal during the AFC General Assembly)
However, this time, the Korean Football Association followed closely the Saudi Football Association and expressed support for its motion to cancel the "maximum three term limit for the presidency", and firmly "stood in the team". This is somewhat surprising. Perhaps, this is also a strategic change of the Korean Football Association in football diplomacy. Because Zheng Mengkui is also facing the problem that his three term of office is about to expire in China.
Under such a background, Chinese football has no "hard power", and after the end of the "Golden Football" era, Chinese football has no "power of capital", and East Asia has no support from South Korea and Japan. This doomed the next development road to be more difficult. In the face of such unprecedented changes in Asian football, what should Chinese football do? This is undoubtedly a problem that Chinese football managers need to seriously consider and study.
