The Iraqi Football Association (IFA) gained a new chief on Saturday, in an election in which the country's football establishment won over a candidate unofficially backed by the government. Najeh Hmoud's victory over Falah Hassan is expected to end two years of paralysis and problems with world football's governing body, FIFA.
Hmoud, the IFA's deputy chief, won with 48 votes to 26 for the only other contestant, Falah Hassan. Three other contestants who had announced their candidacy on Friday later pulled out for reasons that remained unclear. The election came after the IFA's disputed chief Hussein Said announced his resignation Monday, saying he was doing so in order to allow the association to get on with its work.
The election pitted Hmoud, who was backed by the country's football establishment, against Hassan, who was unofficially backed by the youth ministry, which is close to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government. Although FIFA insists that football must be free of politics, in Iraq politics permeates nearly everything, especially football. There were 75 members on the general committee with voting rights, but not all of them cast a ballot.
"I think the experience I gained from working as the association's deputy over the past several years (since 2004) are enough to give me the win," Hmoud said the day before the election. "The general committee knows what I've done and what I want to do in the future, and I think I will win the elections because I have a large number of supporters inside the committee." he told AFP.
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