Transparency appears nowhere on the radar of Asian football governors, as global football reels from the worst crisis in the sport’s history. That was evident in a terse statement issued by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) announcing the resignation of its suspended general secretary, Dato Alex Soosay.

The statement made no mention of Soosay’s suspension, an investigation into the general secretary’s apparent attempt to tamper or hide documents related to an audit that uncovered suspected extensive corruption but has since been buried, or the fact that the AFC was forced to relieve Soosay of his duties after this blog revealed his attempts to obstruct the audit.

It also did not explain whether it would take action against the group’s finance director, Bryan Kuan Wee Hoong, who rejected Soosay’s alleged attempt, but in the three years since did not deem it necessary to report the incident.

… James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, co-director of the Institute of Fan Culture of the University of Würzburg and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer, and a forthcoming book with the same title.