MEMBER associations of the Asian Football Confederation have voted to give Philippine Football Federation president Mariano “Nonong” Araneta one of four slots allocated to Asia on the FIFA Council.
Araneta, along with Mahfuza Kiron (Bangladesh), Zhang Jian (China), Chung Mong Gyu (Korea) were given the nod by member nations during the AFC Congress 2017 in Manama, Bahrain.
“I’d like to thank everyone for having supported us and we promise not to let them down. We will do our best when representing Asia at the FIFA Council,” said Araneta in a statement released online from Bahrain.
The four secured votes requiring the simple majority. They got 27 votes over Australia’s Moya Dodd who received 17 votes in the first round.
As part of the FIFA Reforms, the AFC will now have seven members on the FIFA Council.
The reforms also aim to increase the role of women in football governance and each Confederation will have one female representative on the new body.
The term of office for all the FIFA Council Members is from 2017 until 2019.