Zurich – Around two dozen men showed up at the venue for the FIFA congress early Friday, voicing and showing support for Bahrain’s Sheikh Ibrahim Khalifa who is running for the presidency of the ruling football body later in the day.
They held placards with the slogans “Supporting the clean man’’ and “FIFA will be safe with Salman’’ at the Hallenstadion venue in Zurich.
It remained unclear whether the message was real as one activist, who said he was from Senegal, admitted he didn’t care about it.
The report said that a self-acclaimed human rights activist from Bahrain tried to prevent journalists from speaking with the others.
“He said he was a human rights activist from Bahrain and others also said they were from Bahrain,’’ it said.
The Asian football Chief, Sheikh Salman has been under fire from human rights groups who say he was involved in arrests and possible torture of players around pro-democracy protests in Bahrain in 2011.
However, Sheikh Salman has denied the accusations.
The extraordinary FIFA congress is to elect a new president from five candidates later Friday to succeed banned Joseph Blatter.
Sheikh Salman and Swiss UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino are seen as the frontrunners in the vote among the 207 members.
It is also to approve a wide ranging reform package to overcome its corruption tainted image amid criminal investigations in the U.S. and Switzerland.
Reforms include new governance rules, term limits for leading officials, higher women’s quotas and more transparency. (dpa/NAN)
