Iran Football Federation President Ali Kafashian has been elected as one of five vice presidents of the Asian Football Confederation at the 26th AFC Ordinary Congress on Thursday.

The AFC Congress is the Asian Football Confederation's highest decision-making body, with all its member associations represented at its biannual meetings. The main items on the agenda of this edition are the elections for key AFC and FIFA positions.

Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, as the sole candidate for AFC presidency, won the election by acclamation for a four-year term until 2019. He was initially elected AFC president at the 25th Ordinary Congress in 2013.

In 2011, former president Bin Hamman was suspected of offering bribery to vie for FIFA presidency and suspended by FIFA. Zhang Jilong, vice president of AFC was appointed acting president until the 2013 AFC congress.

Since the 2013 Congress, AFC have taken some important decisions such as revamping the format of the AFC Asian Cup by increasing the number of participating teams to 24 in 2019, merging the preliminary qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup with the qualifiers for the Asian Cup, and separating South-Central into two zones.

AFC Vice Presidents (5 positions; one from each zone):
Winston Lee Boon Aun (Singapore; Zone: ASEAN)
Zhang Jilong (China; Zone: East)
Ali Kafashian Naeini (Iran; Zone: Central)
Saoud A. Aziz M A Al Mohannadi (Qatar; Zone: West)
Praful Manoharbhai Patel (India; Zone: South)

AFC Female Executive Committee Members (5 positions; one from each zone)
Moya Dodd (Australia; Zone: ASEAN)
Han Un Gyong (DPR Korea; Zone: East)
Zohra Mehri (Afghanistan; Zone: Central)
Susan R. A. Shalabi (Palestine; Zone: West)
Mahfuza Akhter (Bangladesh; Zone: South)
(Source: Staff & Agencies