His Excellency Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani, President of Qatar Football Association, whose country hosts the Asian Cup next January, was elected a FIFA member for the first time. Sheikh Hamad was picked by 40 of the 45 voting federations and Almisehal got 35 during the 33rd General Assembly of the Asian Football Confederation, which was held in the Bahraini capital, Manama. The 37-member FIFA Council is chaired by the governing body’s president Gianni Infantino, who had a front-row seat Wednesday at the election meeting in Bahrain. The victory of H.E. the QFA President was confirmed after he received the most votes in the election – 40 – from among the seven candidates for the five positions. The Asian Football Confederation had announced the final list of candidates for membership of the FIFA Ruling Council, and they are His Excellency Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani (Qatar), Du Zhaocai (China), Kozo Tashima (Japan), and Mong Gyu-Chung (Korea). South), Datuk Haji Hamdan bin Haji Muhammad Amin (Malaysia), Mariano Araneta (Philippines), and Yasser Al-Mishal (Saudi Arabia), and the candidates for the position of the five vice-presidents in Asia are Hashem Haider (Lebanon) West Asia, Mahdi Taj (Iran) and Dastanbek Konukbaev ( Kyrgyzstan) Central Asia, Eugene Tsichop (Bhutan) South Asia, Zaw Zaw (Myanmar) the ASEAN region, and Ghanbaatar Amgalanbaatar (Mongolia) East Asia.