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Jordan’s Prince Ali wins FIFA vice-presidency

Jordan’s Prince Ali bin Al Hussein stunned powerful South Korean Chung Mong-Joon to unseat him as a FIFA vice-president here on Thursday.

Chung, the controlling shareholder in industrial giant Hyundai Heavy Industries, a major FIFA sponsor, had been in the job since 1994 and was widely expected to retain the role.

But in a vote of the Asian Football Confederation’s 45 eligible members at their Congress in Doha, the prince won 25-20.

It was a big upset with rumours flying that Chung, 59, was to launch a campaign to unseat Sepp Blatter as FIFA president later in the year, someone he has previously feuded with.

Chung supported an unsuccessful attempt to unseat Blatter 10 years ago amid allegations of financial impropriety from the collapse of a marketing company that worked for FIFA.

He reopened the wounds just months ago when he insisted change at the top was in the interests of football’s world governing body.

Blatter was in the arena for the vote on Thursday.

Prince Ali, a Blatter ally, becomes the youngest member of the FIFA executive committee at the age of 35 after rallying Arab support behind him.

The son of the late King Hussein and late Queen Alia, he has been president of his domestic football federation for a decade and holds the same role at the head of the West Asian Football Federation.