KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 23 — The Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah today granted an audience to Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, at Istana Negara.
The session that began at 2 pm was also attended by AFC secretary-general Datuk Seri Windsor Paul John.
During the session, His Majesty was briefed on the construction of the US$50 million AFC Stadium with a capacity of 10,000 spectators in Putrajaya, built in collaboration with the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA).
“His Majesty was also briefed on the latest AFC and FIFA programmes and activities in the continent as well as on the preparations for hosting the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
“His Majesty is scheduled to attend the 2022 Qatar World Cup at the invitation of the Qatari Government,” read the post on Istana Negara’s Facebook, today.
Qatar is the first Arab state chosen to host the FIFA World Cup scheduled to take place from Nov 20 to Dec 18, and will feature Asian countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, South Korea and Japan.
The last time His Majesty met Shaikh Salman at the Istana Negara was in conjunction with the ‘AFC Diamond of Asia’ awards ceremony on Nov 7, 2019, in recognition of Al-Sultan Abdullah’s over three decades of contribution to football in the continent.
His Majesty’s active involvement in football at the domestic and international level is evident through his experience in leading several associations before, including as AFC vice president, council member of the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) and president of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM).
Al-Sultan Abdullah also created history when he was chosen to be among the three FIFA Executive Committee Members representing Asia for the 2015-2019 term.
