21 October 2015 – Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa has emerged as a contender for the FIFA presidency, despite allegations of his involvement in severe human rights violations in Bahrain during his tenure as Bahrain Football Association (BFA) president. Applications for candidacy are due by Monday 26 October, and Sheikh Salman is expected to be among them.
In 2013, the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) submitted allegations of human rights abuses that implicate Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa to the Fifa Ethics Committee. Despite BIRD’s repeated requests for an investigation by FIFA into these allegations, the head of the Committee, Michael Garcia, refused.
Following a widespread security response against anti-government demonstrations in 2011, Sheikh Salman, the then-president of the BFA, was involved in the publicly identification, targeting, and arrest of footballers who attended peaceful protests to voice their opinions.
The BFA issued fines and suspensions to football clubs whose athletes participated in protests or which could not attend games due to the state of emergency imposed between March-June 2011. The BFA also suspended all players and club staff suspected to have participated in peaceful demonstrations.
Professional footballers from the Bahrain national football team were defamed, arrested and tortured following their public identification and humiliation by authorities. Among them was the Bahrain national team star striker, Alaa Hubail, after his public humiliation on Bahrain National TV. Prince Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, son of Bahrain’s King and chair of the Bahrain Olympic Committee, promised on live television at the time that a “wall” will “fall on protesters head” and called for the imprisonment of all athletes who took part in protests.
Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, Director of Advocacy at BIRD, said: “In attempting to get rid of its corruption crisis FIFA could soon be replacing one allegedly corrupt official with another. The accusations against Salman are something FIFA is aware of and has refused to investigate. His appointment would be absurd.”
At the time of the footballers’ arrests in 2011, FIFA made inquires to Bahrain and the BFA. FIFA’s rules allow it to suspend countries for political interference in the sport. But these inquiries led nowhere. In 2013, BIRD requested that FIFA open an investigation on the basis of Sheikh Salman Al Khalifa violating its Code of Ethics in his capacity as BFA president.
But FIFA Ethics Committee chief Michael Garcia refused on the grounds that the FIFA Code of Ethics did not apply to Sheikh Khalifa. The FIFA statutes clearly state that the Code is applicable “to all officials and players including every ‘board member, committee member and any other person’ responsible for matters in FIFA, a Confederation, Association, League or club’”. This also includes individuals that have left their posts after committing violations.
Sheikh Salman was subsequently elected to head the AFC and is expected to be the favourite to succeed Sepp Blatter as president of FIFA.
Read the Letters
2. FIFA Letter to BIRD_6.1.2014
