Asian football chief keen to mend fences

SINGAPORE: Asian Football Confederation chief Mohamed bin Hammam began his new four-year term as a FIFA executive committee member this week keen to end rifts with his most ardent critics.

But, as the dust settles on one of the most bitter election campaigns seen in football, he insists he will never change his controversial style of leadership.

So disillusioned were almost half of the AFC's 46 member nations in the way the Qatari runs the regional football body that they voted against him last Friday at their congress in a key show of dissent.