Oman- OFA will continue to back Prince Ali

(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Confirming that Oman had voted for Prince Ali bin Hussein during last month's FIFA presidential election against Sepp Blatter Sayyid Khalid al Busaidy the Oman Football Association (OFA) chairman had said that he would continue to back the Jordanian if the latter stands again for the FIFA top post.

Speaking to Muscat Daily on Monday Sayyid Khalid said 'I supported Prince Ali [at the election] as I was convinced that it was time for a change at the top. With all respect to Blatter who has been a good friend of Oman I think it was right for us to support Prince Ali.'

The OFA boss added 'I will support Prince Ali if he decides to stand for re-election and if not we will see who are the other candidates. It is premature to talk about it now but I think it is time for the world body to be more transparent.'

Blatter won the election for an unprecedented fifth term at the helm of the FIFA after Prince Ali conceded defeat following the first round of voting.

At the FIFA's 65th congress that was held in Zurich Switzerland 209 member nations cast their votes. The 79 year old Blatter garnered 133 votes to Prince Ali's 73 but fell seven votes short of earning a two-third majority enforcing a second vote that would have required only a simple majority. At that point Prince Ali withdrew from the race.

Sayyid Khalid said 'It (my decision to support Prince Ali) proved right as a few days after winning the election Blatter decided to quit as he could not cope with all the challenges he was facing. It was a wise move to resign.'

He added 'I call for all the investigations to be made public as we have the right to know. I strongly believe the [Michael] Garcia report on the World Cup bids of Russia and Qatar should be made public as it is only fair to know what exactly went wrong if there was anything wrong.'