The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has reiterated its support for Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifah of Bahrain in his bid to become president of world governing body FIFA.
Asian federations were urged to back AFC president Sheikh Salman at a meeting in Kuala Lumpur Wednesday.
AFC marketing committee chairman Richard Lai said: “Our vision is One Asia, One Goal. Our goal is a united Asia and to demonstrate that we must unite behind our president in the FIFA election. “At present Asia has two candidates for the FIFA presidency. We must unite behind the one who will deliver these reforms and that is the AFC president. The AFC should not just support the reform process but be a part of it.”
The AFC executive committee had already endorsed Sheikh Salman, who also has the backing of the African confederation CAF.
The Asian confederation has 46 votes and the African confederation 54 votes in the election in Zurich on February 26.
A two-thirds majority of 209 eligible voters is required to win in the first round, and a simple majority will be needed in subsequent rounds. It is thought likely that not all national federations will follow their confederation endorsements.
Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan could pick up some of the Asian votes, while UEFA secretary general Gianni Infantino has the support of the European governing body, which has 53 votes.
Infantino has also won the endorsement of the South American confederation CONMEBOL, which has 10 votes, and the support of the seven Central American members of CONCACAF, the North and Central America and the Caribbean confederation, which has 35 votes.
The CONCACAF executive committee will reportedly not follow the examples of other confederations and endorse a candidate.

Germans won’t vote for Sheikh Salman in the FIFA elections
Acting DFB president Reinhard Rauball has said the German FA will not vote for Sheikh Salman in next week’s FIFA presidency elections because of his suspected human rights abuses.
The DFB has already said they will be voting for UEFA candidate Gianni Infantino in the elections to replace Sepp Blatter on February 26.
But in an interview with yesterday’s edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Rauball explained why Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifah is not an option for the Germans. “In terms of football, he makes a good impression. But given the human rights issues and the persistent doubts, which have not been cleared up, we will not vote for him,” said Rauball.
Greg Dyke, chairman of the English Football Association, has cast similar doubts over Sheikh Salman’s bid to succeed Blatter.
Sheikh Salman has repeatedly avoided questioning over the human rights issue and was one of the first candidates to withdraw from a proposed ‘New FIFA Now’ forum in Brussels last month, but continues to insist he has no ‘skeletons in the closet’.
Rauball repeated the German FA’s decision to support Infantino who served under disgraced UEFA president Michel Platnini as general secretary of European football’s governing body.
“It would be unjust just for him to get rejected because Michel Platini was his boss in recent years,” said Rauball.