Activists have called for Asia's football chief, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, to resign after the body admitted for the first time that the Bahraini royal family member has a "conflict of interest" in regard to his jailed compatriot, Hakeem Al-Araibi, South China Morning Post newspaper reported.

The government said its funding needs until 2022 amount to about 20 billion US dollars, and Gulf financial support covers (50%) of this need.

Bahrain's supreme court, whose verdicts are final, on Monday upheld a life term for Shiite opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman for spying for Gulf rival Qatar, a judicial source said.

A leading Thai football club has joined the growing international chorus to free refugee player Hakeem Al-Araibi, who faces deportation to Bahrain where he fears for his life.

Former Australia soccer captain Craig Foster will lobby officials at world governing body FIFA later on Monday for them to intervene on behalf of a Bahraini refugee player being detained in Thailand and facing deportation to his country.

The Asian Football Confederation said on Saturday that President Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa had had no influence on their handling of the case of a Bahraini player arrested in Thailand in November over a prison sentence in his homeland.

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the weakness of Mohammed bin Salman may reflect on the Bahraini issue positively, noting that what is preventing the start of a dialogue between the authorities and the opposition in Bahrain is Saudi Arabia.

Head of World Players Association said Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa should be disqualified from his positions as vice-president of Fifa and president of the Asian Football Confederation if Hakeem Al-Araibi is returned to Bahrain, the Guardian reported.

Australian football player and analyst Craig Foster said that he demanded a meeting with FIFA administration on Monday.

FIFA sent on Wednesday (January 23, 2019) a letter to Prayut Chan-o-cha, the prime minister of Thailand, urging him to immediately release the Bahraini footballer Hakeem Al-Araibi, and demanding discussing Al-Araibi's case with representative from the Thai government.

A former Australian soccer player campaigning to free a Bahraini refugee athlete detained in Thailand wants FIFA, the sport's governing body, to sanction the soccer associations of Thailand and Bahrain if they fail to help.

The American Foreign Policy magazine added Nabeel Rajab to a list of 100 figures whom it described as global thinkers and doers who had a profound impact on the planet in the last 12 month.

Sources from activists reported that human rights defender suffered a health setback on Tuesday night.

The deputy secretary general of Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, Sheikh Hussein Al-Daihi, said that "dissolving and uprooting Wa'd Society is neither new nor surprising to everyone who understands the mentality of the regime in Bahrain. The regime’s plan is eradication and crushing of anyone who says a word that bothers it.”

Amnesty International considered that Bahrain’s dissolution of the country’s opposition Wa’ad Society shows that Bahraini authorities are resorting to all means to crush dissent.

Bahrain's public prosecution income from fines and bails amounted to 8 million dinars ($21 million) last year alone, according to statements made by the Attorney General Ali Al-Buainain on Tuesday (January 22, 2019).

Abdul Ghani Al-Shuwaikh, Secretary General of the Higher Education Council, said that there are 6 thousand foreign students studying in Bahraini universities.

The Bahraini authorities arrested on Sunday (January 20, 2019) former MP Ali Al-Asheeri as he was checking with a police station.

The Al-Wefaq National Isalmic Society condemned the verdict issued by the cassation court in Bahrain upholding Wa'ad dissolution.

Greens and the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) say parliament should investigate Australian Federal Police's role in the detention of Bahraini refugee in Thailand, The Guardian newspaper reported.