Bahrain Mirror: The English Football Association chairman Greg Dyke criticized Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa's candidacy for FIFA over probably being involved in human rights violations in Bahrain. ''No one denies that there were violations of human rights involving sportsmen and footballers that went on four years ago. No one denies that. The denial is over whether or not he was involved," said Dyke.

The intimations of the English official matched those of the human rights organizations that accused the Al Khalifa family of being involved in oppressing the anti-government protestors. He also accused Salman bin Ibrahim, being the president of Bahrain Football Association, of arresting and oppressing football players and other athletes. However, Sheikh Salman, the president of the Asian Football Confederation, have categorically denied these accusations.

Dyke went further in his criticism, stressing that he is not concerned in proving whether Sheikh Salman was involved in the accusations brought forth against him or not: "The question is: Does it matter whether or not he was involved, or is it the fact, can you have someone from Bahrain running world football, in charge of world football, given what happened there four years ago? I personally have my doubts.'' Dyke's statements came a week after the Jordanian Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein accused one of the FIFA candidates, Sheikh Salman, describing him as a person who failed to protect his players and did not fight for them.

Arabic Issue