"China to be become a serious football power" says Fifa presidential candidate Sheikh Salman

Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa is seen by many as the favourite to be elected president of football's governing body at the elections on February 26. He answered questions from the South China Morning Post about his campaign by email

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Bahraini Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa is seen by many as the frontrunner to become Fifa president. Photo: AFP

Published: 12:15pm, 4 Feb 2016Updated: 3:46pm, 22 Feb 2016

How can Fifa possibly be redeemed? Surely we should scrap it and start again?

The reforms must be implemented. Further reforms I outlined (www.shaikhsalman.org) need to be adopted. Fifa needs an overhaul. We must rid ourselves of individuals who have brought the organisation into disrepute. After 112 years, Fifa must undergo significant reformation. This does not mean that we should eliminate it but that we must create a new philosophy and a new structure, which corresponds to the 21st century. Fifa today is stuck in the mindset of the 1970s and 1980s. We must adapt to the internet age and restructure, rethink.

How do you answer accusations that having a president accused of human rights abuses is hardly the image Fifa should want to project?

I was never involved in any human rights abuses. I have never actively nor indirectly participated in any nefarious action. I have severally outlined to numerous world media that the allegations against me are politically motivated and entirely false. I have yet to see any hard facts that prove me wrong. It is one thing to allege wrongdoing but it is quite different to prove it. There cannot be any proof but there are continued false allegations.

Fifa candidates: Uefa secretary general Gianni Infantino, AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, former Fifa deputy general secretary Jerome Champagne, Fifa vice president for Asia Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan and chairman of the Fifa monitoring committee for Israel and Palestine Tokyo Sexwale. Photo: AFP

In China, president Xi Jinping has declared that the country must become a soccer superpower. How could you help the country achieve those goals as president?

As AFC president I have taken a number of steps to support China’s football development. First and foremost, it is China itself who needs to dedicate itself to grassroots programmes, without which there can never be sustainable development. The AFC is actively contributing to that in many ways and through numbers of initiatives.