President of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Mohammed Bin Hammam is fighting for his seat on FIFA's Executive Committee.
The challenger is Sheikh Salman of Bahrain. With Bin Hammam vowing to step down from his position of AFC chief he loses the May 8.
This power struggle has created an interesting challenge for Iran’s Football Federation (IFF).
On the one hand, Bin Hamman has maintained a positive report card for Iranian football.
In 2007 before the Asian Games, when Iran was suspended by FIFA, Bin Hamman turned out to be an advocate of Iranian football with he world's governing body.
Additionally, IFF’s lobbying with Bin Hamman resulted in four teams from Iran being allowed to participate in the 2009 Asian Champions League.
Sheikh Salman doesn’t yet have much support among Iran football officials. He is one of the major sponsors of the 'Arabian Gulf Cup.' Iran and Arabian countries have been arguing over the name of the gulf for years.
Additionally, the Iranian side believes that earlier this year Shiekh Salman was responsible for the cancellation of friendly matches between Iran and Bahrain and Morocco.
Nevertheless, Shiekh Salman will visit Iran on April 18. IFF’s President, Ali Kafashian told Goal.com that: “High ranking officials of IFF will not be at the airport welcoming Sheikh Salman. We (IFF) will have a representative with flowers welcoming him and escort him to his hotel.”
It still looks as if Iran will support Bin Hamman but this is by no means certain.
It is also being rumoured in the Tehran press that Shiekh Al Sabah from Kuwait, the President of Olympic Council of Asia, has made it clear that if Iran expects to have a seat on the IOC it needs to support the Bahraini Shiekh…