Blatter’s muscle in the Middle East eyes Fifa presidency

In the lobby of the heavily fortified Hilton hotel where the International Olympic Committee met in Buenos Aires in 2013 to decide the host of the 2020 Games, there was only one man who still felt the need to be accompanied by two bodyguards at all times.

And every time Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah, a former officer in the Kuwaiti army with shoulder-length curls, moved among the curious collection of minor royals, federation chiefs and former athletes who make up the IOC, there was a murmur.

He is virtually unknown internationally but such is his growing reputation as a sporting powerbroker that as soon as he was levered on to the Fifa executive committee by the now outgoing president, Sepp Blatter, in April, he was being talked about as his potential successor.

Not only is Al-Sabah the president of the powerful Association of National Olympic Committees but he also heads up the Olympic Council of Asia and is in charge of the IOC’s solidarity commission, which dispenses $98 million a year around the world to Olympic committees. With those positions comes real power.

In Buenos Aires he scored a hat-trick by helping Thomas Bach ascend to the IOC presidency, successfully backing his chosen host, Tokyo, for the 2020 Summer Games and ensuring wrestling retained its Olympic slot. His other successes include backing the Buenos Aires bid for the Youth Olympic Games in 2018 and helping Marcus Vizer, the combustible Hungarian head of world judo, into position as the head of SportAccord.

Unalloyed success

Having sewn up the Olympic world, the sheikh has turned his attention to football. It is not the first time, though his attempt to coach his national team was not an unalloyed success, culminating in a rant against Australia’s right to enter the Asian Cup after losing to them in qualifying in 2006.

Away from the pitch, in the meeting rooms where the business of global sport is discussed by men in grey suits, he has been more successful.

In the Middle East, where sport has over the past 15 years become increasingly important as a means of projecting soft power and building nationhood, involvement in bidding for events and climbing the greasy pole in international sports organisations has become a useful means of obtaining personal standing.

Al-Sabah has served as minister of information and minister for oil in his native Kuwait and is a former chair of Opec but he has focused most of his energies on sport. Rulers in Doha and Dubai have concentrated on bidding for the right to host a string of international sporting events but Bahrain and Kuwait have been more interested in building up influence.

Behind throne

Before the Fifa election he acted as Blatter’s muscle in the region, part of an attempt to outmanoeuvre the president’s challenger, Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein, and is talked of as the power behind the throne of the Asian Football Confederation president, Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim al Khalifa.

Even after the dawn raids and arrests he helped deliver the votes to take Blatter to a short-lived victory. He called Blatter "brave" and fed into the same narrative of American meddling as Vladimir Putin.

“According to the human rights treaties and countries constitutions, people are innocent until proven otherwise. Therefore, we still have to wait and see if this is a real case.”

Earlier this year, in a response straight from the Blatter playbook, he also led the charge against "racist" media allegations of bribery against the Qatar 2022 World Cup bid. "We will face all these racist attempts and attacks and will stand with Qatar," he declared. "Nobody will take from Qatar the hosting of the 2022 World Cup in Doha."

That is the sort of tough talk that may appeal to the two-thirds of the electorate who backed Blatter last week.

His office has said he has yet to decide whether to throw his hat into the ring to succeed Blatter. If he does, he will be among the favourites. Root-and-branch reform may not be top of his agenda. Guardian Service