Bahrain’s candidate to become Asia’s next football boss has made a fresh denial that players and officials were persecuted under his direction during democracy protests two years ago.
Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa’s comments come after several human rights groups called for him to be pulled from the race for presidency of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB), the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights have written to the president of FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, Sepp Blatter, accusing Al Khalifa, a Bahraini royal and head of the country’s football association, of human rights violations, including condoning the arrest and torture of those involved in the protests in February 2011.
“Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa is involved in human rights violations with the assistance of his office and consultants against players, administrators, referees and clubs who participated in the democracy protests in February 2011,” the Bahraini organisations wrote in a letter dated April 26, according to news wire AFP.
“We hope that you bear in mind the sublime principles of sport and fair play that respect basic human rights and to distance all violators of human rights from reaching prestigious sport positions in order to embellish their notorious image.”
On Saturday Sheikh Salman issued a statement vehemently denying any wrongdoing.
“I would like to reiterate that in my capacity as the president of the Bahrain Football Association [BFA], I have always been committed to manage, control and develop our game independently and autonomously without any kind of outside interference,” he said.
“I can assure anyone that the BFA is being guided according to the highest possible governance standards of integrity and transparency – fully in line with the AFC and FIFA statutes; and no action has been taken under my direction against any member of the football community.
“I therefore vehemently deny all allegations made in this letter. The content of this letter is a clear attempt to damage my personal reputation and to interfere with the AFC presidential elections taking place in Kuala Lumpur.”
A vote for the AFC presidency is due to be held on Thursday.
Sheikh Salman is competing against soccer chiefs from Saudi Arabia (Hafez Ibrahim Al Medlej), the UAE (Yousuf Al Serkal) and Thailand (Worawi Makudi).
A week ago, Al-Serkal claimed he had the backing of the FIFA boss, Blatter.
“I was looking for his blessing, and I definitely felt that I have it,” Al Serkal said. “My discussion with him was very open, and I left FIFA with much more comfort then when I entered.”
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