Yasser Al Misehal, right, president of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation, with national team coach Herve Renard during a training session ahead of the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar. EPA
Yasser Al Misehal, right, president of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation, with national team coach Herve Renard during a training session ahead of the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar. EPA
Yasser Al Misehal, right, president of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation, with national team coach Herve Renard during a training session ahead of the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar. EPA
Yasser Al Misehal, right, president of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation, with national team coach Herve Renard during a training session ahead of the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar. EPA

Who is Yasser Al Misehal - the Saudi football chief joining Fifa Council?


Steve Luckings
  • English
  • Arabic

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday returned to the powerful Fifa Council with their federation head Yasser Al Misehal getting elected at the AFC Congress held in Bahrain.

Who is Yasser Al Misehal?

Al Misehal is the president of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF), and has presided over a period of unprecedented change and progress in Saudi football, under the patronage of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The men's national team pulled off one of the biggest shocks in tournament history when they beat tournament favourites Argentina at the World Cup in Qatar late last year, a feat Al Misehal described in a December interview with The National as "one of the most historical moments for the Saudi nation".

A member of both Fifa's and the Asian Football Confederation's Disciplinary Committees, Al Misehal also served as chairman of the Saudi Pro League from June 2016 to October 2017.

According to his LinkedIn page, Al Misehal studied Sport Management at Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi from 2014 to 2015 and has a Bachelor's degree in finance from King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals.

An avid sports fan since childhood, Al Misehal is an honorary member of Al Ettifaq Football Club.

How has he changed Saudi football?

Under Al Misehal's patronage Saudi football has undergone major changes. Saudi age-group sides have enjoyed recent success, with the Under-23s clinching the Asian Cup in Uzbekistan in June, and the U20s triumphing at the Arab Cup on home soil in August.

According to the SAFF, the organisation is responsible for the development and up-skilling of more than 3,000 national coaches – more than at any time in the country's history – and 1,700 referees across the kingdom.

In the past three years, Saudi Arabia has invested heavily in women’s football as both grass-roots player development and the establishment in 2021 of a first women’s national team. The kingdom has also introduced an inaugural women’s football league and girls’ school league.

Latest figures show there are now 520 registered players across 25 clubs in the league, and almost 50,000 girls in the inaugural schools’ league.

Meanwhile, the Saudi Pro League is able to attract superstars like Cristiano Ronaldo, who in December joined Riyadh-based Al Nassr on what is believed to be the most lucrative contract in world football.

Monika Staab, the Saudi Arabia women's head coach, celebrates with her team after they finished top of a four-team Women’s International Friendly Tournament in the Eastern Province on January 20, 2023. Photo: Saudi Arabian Football Federation
Monika Staab, the Saudi Arabia women's head coach, celebrates with her team after they finished top of a four-team Women’s International Friendly Tournament in the Eastern Province on January 20, 2023. Photo: Saudi Arabian Football Federation

What is the Fifa Council?

The Fifa Council is the main decision-making body of the organisation, outside the Fifa Congress. The council is a supervisory body that sets the vision for the organisation and for global football.

It has members from six confederations, with the AFC getting seven spots in the 37-member council.

Al Misehal's elevation to the Fifa Council restores Saudi Arabia's presence in the decision-making position at world football's governing body after an absence of 21 years. Al Misehal will automatically become a member of the Asian Executive Office, too.

What next for Saudi Arabia?

Saudi Arabia has grand plans for football. On Wednesday, the country won the hosting rights for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup. Saudi Arabia was the only country left in the race after India withdrew their candidature as potential hosts.

The 2023 Asian Cup will be hosted by Qatar. It was previously set to be held in China but the country withdrew because of its Covid-19 guidelines. Qatar won the tournament's last edition, in 2019, which was hosted by the UAE.

Saudi Arabia is also looking host the 2026 women's Asian Cup, which will be another milestone in the journey of women's sports in the kingdom.

However, the biggest target is said to be a bid for the hosting rights of the 2030 Fifa World Cup, with Saudi Arabia reported to be considering a joint proposal with Egypt and Greece.

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Top tips

Create and maintain a strong bond between yourself and your child, through sensitivity, responsiveness, touch, talk and play. “The bond you have with your kids is the blueprint for the relationships they will have later on in life,” says Dr Sarah Rasmi, a psychologist.
Set a good example. Practise what you preach, so if you want to raise kind children, they need to see you being kind and hear you explaining to them what kindness is. So, “narrate your behaviour”.
Praise the positive rather than focusing on the negative. Catch them when they’re being good and acknowledge it.
Show empathy towards your child’s needs as well as your own. Take care of yourself so that you can be calm, loving and respectful, rather than angry and frustrated.
Be open to communication, goal-setting and problem-solving, says Dr Thoraiya Kanafani. “It is important to recognise that there is a fine line between positive parenting and becoming parents who overanalyse their children and provide more emotional context than what is in the child’s emotional development to understand.”
 

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MATCH INFO

Everton 2 Southampton 1
Everton: Walcott (15'), Richarlison (31' )
Southampton: Ings (54')

Man of the match: Theo Walcott (Everton)

Basquiat in Abu Dhabi

One of Basquiat’s paintings, the vibrant Cabra (1981–82), now hangs in Louvre Abu Dhabi temporarily, on loan from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. 

The latter museum is not open physically, but has assembled a collection and puts together a series of events called Talking Art, such as this discussion, moderated by writer Chaedria LaBouvier. 

It's something of a Basquiat season in Abu Dhabi at the moment. Last week, The Radiant Child, a documentary on Basquiat was shown at Manarat Al Saadiyat, and tonight (April 18) the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is throwing the re-creation of a party tonight, of the legendary Canal Zone party thrown in 1979, which epitomised the collaborative scene of the time. It was at Canal Zone that Basquiat met prominent members of the art world and moved from unknown graffiti artist into someone in the spotlight.  

“We’ve invited local resident arists, we’ll have spray cans at the ready,” says curator Maisa Al Qassemi of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. 

Guggenheim Abu Dhabi's Canal Zone Remix is at Manarat Al Saadiyat, Thursday April 18, from 8pm. Free entry to all. Basquiat's Cabra is on view at Louvre Abu Dhabi until October

Three tips from La Perle's performers

1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.

2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.

3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.

The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

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Updated: February 01, 2023, 1:02 PM