FIFA Appoint China’s Jilong as Head of London 2012 Football Organizing Committee

FIFA have appointed China’s Zhang Jilong, current acting head of Asian football, to chair next week’s meeting of the London 2012 Olympic football tournament’s Organising Committee.

Jilong’s appointment comes three weeks after Confederation of African Football (CAF) head IssaHayatou, an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member, was embarrassingly and mistakenly announced as being given the role instead.

Hayatou is still being investigated by the IOC’s Ethics Commission over allegations that he took backhanders from FIFA’s former marketing partner, ISL.

FIFA blamed a technical error for saying Hayatou was to head its Olympic football body for London 2012.

Zhang took over as acting boss of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) from Mohamed Bin Hammam when he was banned for life over the recent bribery scandal.

His appointment still needs to be certified by FIFA’s Executive Committee on October 20 but that shouldn’t be a problem given that Zhang will sit on the Committee in place of Bin Hammam.