The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) postponed its election for three additional members of FIFA Council due to disagreements over the agenda of the AFC's Extraordinary Congress held on Tuesday.

Delegates from AFC members voted 42-1 against continuing the election process. Shaikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, president of AFC, made the announcement at the close of the conference 27 minutes after its opening.

"This has been an eventful morning - and an eventful few weeks," concluded Shaikh Salman.

"But the congress has spoken with one voice and that has been clear for us all to see. I am not sure if you have been at a shorter Congress but I think you can see the strength of opinion in the room," he added in addressing FIFA's president Gianni Infantino, who gave no clear comment over the result.

The special congress was called according to scandal-hit FIFA's reform plan. The FIFA Council, formerly the FIFA Executive Committee, had decided to expand the number of those sitting on its panel from 25 to 37. With the change, Asia was given three additional seats, along with the original four it was slated to receive.

Zhang Jian, vice chairman and secretary general of the China Football Association (CFA), is listed as candidate together with Iran's Ali Kafashian and Zainudin Nordin of Singapore, with the three of them vying for two seats. Competition for the only female seat includes Moya Dodd from Australia, Han Un Gyong of DPR Korea and Bangladesh's Mafuza Akhter.

Saoud A. Aziz Al-Mohannadi of Qatar was barred from running for the seat a couple days before the congress, after being charged by FIFA's Ethics Committee for refusing to co-operate with an inquiry.

The AFC held an emergency Executive Committee meeting after the congress, where Shaikh Salman added: "Today the AFC and Asian football has shown solidarity and unity. The message has been clear to everyone both inside and outside Asia." He also thanked the AFC's members for sending out "such a strong message that we stand united."

China's Zhang Jian was co-opted to sit on the Committee until the next Extraordinary Congress. The timeline for the next congress is still yet to be jointly established by the AFC and FIFA.

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