Former FAS president Zainudin Nordin pulls out of Fifa Council contest

SINGAPORE - Seven months after announcing his candidature to contest for a seat on the council of world football governing body Fifa, former Football Association of Singapore (FAS) president Zainudin Nordin has decided not to proceed with his quest.

In a media release on Thursday (Feb 2), the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said eight candidates have been confirmed for the four places available to the AFC on the FIFA Council. At least one of those four places must be filled by a woman.

Zainudin’s name was not on the list of four male candidates vying for three slots for men. The male candidates are China’s Zhang Jian, South Korea’s Mong Gyu Chung, Kuwait’s Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al-Sabah (Kuwait), and Philippines’ Mariano V. Araneta Jr.

The elections will be held at the AFC Congress in Bahrain on May 8.

“I just decided not to contest,” Zainudin, 52, told TODAY on Thursday.

The former Member of Parliament declined to go into details why. “It’s just a decision, nothing more,” he said.

In June last year, Zainudin, who headed FAS for seven years, was given the green light by the AFC along with three other male candidates to contest one of three available seats for men on the Fifa Council.

At the time, Zainudin, who also served as a council member of the Asean Football Federation (AFF), explained he wanted to focus his efforts on “contributing and serving” the sport at the international level.

“I have been contributing to sports and football administration for more than 14 years, and I have found the work tremendously enriching and satisfying,” said Zainudin in an interview with TODAY in June last year.

“And I would like to continue to contribute and serve at the international level. I am therefore honoured to be eligible to contest for a Fifa Council position.”

However, at an AFC Extraordinary Congress held in Goa, India in September last year - where the elections to the Fifa Council were to be held - the AFC member countries voted 42-1 against the agenda, and the congress was called off.

The decision to boycott the congress came two days after Fifa had barred a Qatari candidate from running for a spot on the council.

Singapore was the only member to vote in favour of the agenda. Following the boycott, the elections were then postponed to May in Bahrain.

Zainudin, who stepped down as FAS president in November last year, has been leading the AFF’s task force to start an Asean Super League.

He was recently appointed the deputy principal of ITE College East.