Husain Al-Musallam Elected to New 8-Year Term Leading World Aquatics

World Aquatics’ membership re-elected Husain Al-Musallam of Kuwait as the organization’s president and Dale Neuberger of the United States as treasurer during its General Congress held on Tuesday in Fukuoka.

Only one delegate declined to vote for Al-Musallam.

With Al-Musallam’s chief global political rival for aquatics Paolo Barelli suspended, Al-Musallam ran unopposed for the position, as did Neuberger for his.

Al-Musallam is not only the first-ever president of the global aquatics organization from Asia, in 2020 he became their first-ever nominee as well. His tenure so far has been marked by dramatic changes to the organization, including the institution of an Aquatics unit, big changes to rules around athlete nationality changes, and the passing of a new Constitution that includes updated term limits that were softened during the tenure of his predecessor.

Under the new term limits, a president is elected to an initial term of 8 years, which can be renewed for a single 4-year term. While Al-Musallam’s original 4-year term has not expired, a new election was held in light of that new constitution, and Al-Musallam will begin a fresh 8 year term.

In World Aquatics elections, each full member nation receives a vote, as do each of the 20 elected members of the Athletes Committee.

He will still be allowed the 4-year re-election term at the end of his 8 years.

“I feel very proud and also very humbled that you have shown your confidence in me to continue leading you as your President,” said Al-Musallam. “It has been the privilege of my life to serve as the President for the past two years.

“Every day I have worked as hard as I can to serve you and also our athletes.

“We have achieved so much together but we still have much more to do…Today, I am extremely happy because you have given me the opportunity to continue all the good work we have started together.”

While he was unopposed, the win was still an important one politically for the 63-year-old Al-Musallam. Earlier this month, he lost an election to become the president of the Olympic Council of Asia to Sheikh Talal Fahad Al-Sabah, Kuwait’s minister of defense. Sheikh Talal’s win continues a four-decade dynasty by his family leading the organization.

Al-Musallam has reportedly been targeted by the U.S. Department of Justice for suspected bribery related to FIFA and international soccer politics. Al-Musallam has maintained his innocence and told reporters at the Tokyo 2021 Olympics that he was never questioned by American investigators about those allegations.