Iran’s chief football boss, Ali Kaffashian has formally declared his federation’s support for Bahrain’s Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa for the post of FIFA president..

The AFC President , who is a member of the Bahrain royal family has been accused by his country’s opposition parties and international human right organizations of aiding the government and security forces of the country to identify footballers who supported the opposition movement or took part in protest marches during the uprising in 2011. Shaikh Salman denied any wrong doing and FIFA Ethics committee cleared him to register as a candidate.

Kaffashian’s support for the Bahraini candidate is quite in odd with his government political relationship with the tiny Persian Gulf island kingdom. The relations between Iran and Bahrain are at its lowest with Bahraini government taking every opportunity to accuse Iran of meddling in Bahrain’s affairs and providing support for the opposition parties. Bahrain has also accused Iran of training and providing weapons to terrorists in the country. The government of Bahrain however, has failed to provide even a single credible or materialistic evidence of their claim while the Iranian government , too busy with much more important issues, have completely ignored the Bahraini side protests and considers their accusation of Iran as being too worthless to respond to.

It is not known what complication such support by Kaffashian will have on his candidacy in the upcoming FFIRI elections.