Aussies smeared in FIFA election row over Bahraini candidate

Australian powerbrokers in international labour and world sport have been enmeshed in a vicious FIFA smear campaign.

Aussies smeared in FIFA row

Australian powerbrokers in international labour organisations and world sport have been enmeshed in a vicious smear campaign ­centred around this month’s ­election of the FIFA president to replace banned world football boss Sepp Blatter.

The computers of the Brussels-based International Trade Union Confederation, headed by former Australian Council of Trade ­Unions boss Sharan Burrow, have been hacked and one email was ­allegedly fabricated to try to discredit both the confederation and a group of Australians who have been pushing for greater transparency and reform in the widely corrupt FIFA.

Ms Burrow and her Australian communications advisers, Gem­ma Swart and Tim Noonan, Australian businessman Jaimie Fuller, former Football Federation Australia executive Bonita Mersiades, and Britain-based Transparency International executive Deborah Unger are accused of colluding to undermine and discredit the candidature of controversial Bahrain royal family member Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, who is the frontrunner in the FIFA presidential race.

The Australians had been conversing in an email chain about the labour practices involved in stadium construction in 2022 World Cup host Qatar, Blatter’s corruption and how to encourage FIFA candidates to debate their positions publicly before the vote.

The ITUC identified one particular email as being an obvious fake when confronted by Swiss newspaper Weltwoche, which provided screengrabs of a series of correspondence.

It was nonetheless published in Switzerland, where FIFA has its headquarters, and then republished by a pro-Qatari football website, which has been uncritical of Sheik Salman’s candidature.

The published stories were then tweeted by fake journalists such as “Isabelle Vlady”, copying in legitimate journalists.

The allegedly fake email, dated September 9, is claimed to have been written by Ms Swart. It reads: “Prince Ali (bin al-Hussein of Jordan) just announced that he may run again (for the presidency). We do benefit if he wins and Sheik Salman loses. We can divert some money for a dis­information campaign against Salman.”

Sheik Salman was head of the Bahrain Football Association at the time of reports in 2011 that more than 150 Bahraini athletes, coaches and referees were jailed after being identified attending human rights protests when a ­special committee scanned photographs of the protests and recognised them.

Sheik Salman was named chair of this special committee. He has denied that the committee ever met and he has been cleared by the FIFA ethics committee.

Sheik Salman, currently the Asian Football Confederation president, did not enter the FIFA presidential race until late October. Prince Ali is one of the five FIFA candidates.

Sheikh Salman’s spokesman said the Sheikh had taken note of the stories that had been published about the group of Australians.

He said the Sheikh had openly addressed the human rights allegations whenever they were made or asked about.

Ms Mersiades, who was a fierce critic of Football Federation Australia’s World Cup disbursements to Asia, Oceania and Africa, and was axed midway through her tenure, said her computers had been hacked and her websites ­attacked with spam to such an ­extent that the hosting site had to close all of its sites — not just hers — for four days.

“These attacks have been traced to Zurich,’’ Ms Mersiades said.

The ITUC said the attacks had included fake videos, fake social media accounts and other techniques aimed at the ITUC and ­individuals.

“This week the ITUC received confirmation that ITUC email ­accounts have been hacked and falsified material inserted into emails,” the confederation said. “We anticipate that this campaign may intensify in the coming weeks with the election of a new FIFA president due on February 26 and important discussions in UN institutions including the Internat­ional Labour Organisation in the first quarter of this year.

“These methods will not deter the ITUC from standing up for the rights of working people in Qatar or in any other place.’’

Mr Fuller, who successfully pushed for reforms in world cycling body UCI, has switched his ­attention to FIFA and the corruption surrounding Blatter and the election of Qatar as host nation. He insists FIFA needs a clean-out and should accept reforms and greater transparency.

He said the underhanded tactics were “ludicrous’’. He believed it was payback for comments he had made publicly about Sheik Salman’s past earlier this month.

“It is clearly a fake because the doctored email is dated when Michel Plantini was still in the presidential race,’’ he said.

Despite widespread condemnation by human rights groups, Sheik Salman is the frontrunner to win the presidential election ­because of support from Africa and Asia. Australia’s FIFA representative, Moya Dodd, has not stated which candidate she, or the FFA, will back in the election, ­although as a member of the Asian bloc, football powerbrokers would expect Australia to fall into line and support Sheik Salman. An FFA insider said: “Discussions are still ongoing.”

If there is difficulty in deciding which of the five men to back it is because all have links to FIFA’s unsavoury past.

Human Rights Watch said the candidature of Sheik Salman was far more serious than the scandals that FIFA is renowned for. “FIFA members should look long and hard at the al-Khalifas’ history and allegations that Sheik Salman failed to protect footballers from abuses, and ask themselves if this is a family they want to represent them at the highest level,’’ the group said.

The spokesman said:”we have highlighted the falsehoods and malicious lies for too many times than for me now wanting to rehash any of it again and again and again: Sheikh Salman had no involvement whatsoever in the 2011 events and to claim otherwise is seriously defamatory.”

One of the footballers involved in the 2011 crackdown in Bahrain, Sayed Adnan, was arrested and detained for two months for daring to protest against the royal family. Adnan fled to Australia and played for the Brisbane Roar in 2011. At the time he claimed: “My colleagues were tortured to say that I organised the (protest) march.”

Last month Adnan attended a bizarre meeting with Sheik Salman and told a small number of reporters he would be proud if Sheik Salman was to become the FIFA president.

Asked whether he was sure that there had been no torture of footballers, he said: “Absolutely. I have been in Australia but did not hear one person that said he (Salman) did all these things.”