Husain Al-Musallam


Husain Al-Musallam is a Kuwaiti sports administrator and former airline pilot. He currently serves as the Director General of the Olympic Council of Asia and the Secretary General of the Kuwait Olympic Committee. In addition to his roles within the Olympic movement, Al-Musallam is the President of World Aquatics.

Early life and career

Musallam was born on 19 May 1960 in Kuwait. He joined the swimming club of Kazma Sports Club at the age of 8 and became a member of the national team at 13. Between 1974 and 1976, he competed in all Pan-Arab, Asian and World Swimming Championships.
In 1978 he joined Kuwait Airways Corporation as a co-pilot and promoted to airline captain in 1988. He worked as a training and check captain since 1994.
He joined the Olympic Council of Asia on 25 December 1982, and became Deputy Director General and Technical Director in December 1998. He joined the OCA Executive Board on 23 January 2003. He is serving as the Director General since September 2005.
On 30 June 2019 he was elected as the Secretary General of Kuwait Olympic Committee.
On December 3, 2023, the General Assembly of the Kuwait Olympic Committee announced the selection of a new board of Directors for the term 2023–2027. During the meeting, Husain Al Musallam was elected as the Secretary-General for a five-year tenure.
On May 25, 2023, Husain was granted the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the Vassil Levski National Sports Academy in Bulgaria.

World Aquatics

In 2015 he was elected as First Vice President of International Swimming Federation.
In June 2021, Al-Musallam was elected as President of FINA.
In December 2022, FINA changed its name to World Aquatics and passed a resolution to increase the representation of women on the Bureau to at least 40%.
In May 2023, plans were announced to relocate the World Aquatics headquarters from Lausanne to Budapest.
In July 2023, Husain Al-Musallam was elected to a new eight-year term as the president of the World Aquatics organization.

Controversies

Implication in FIFA bribery scandal

In May 2017, The Times suggested that Hussain Al-Musallam was "co-conspirator #3" in a US Department of Justice indictment of Richard Lai, a former member of FIFA's Audit and Compliance Committee and head of the Guam Football Association. In his guilty plea, Richard Lai admitted to accepting $750,000 in wire transfers from accounts controlled by "co-conspirator #3" or his assistants. The OCA, in a written statement to The Times, denied the allegations and "asked the OCA ethics committee to carry out a full review."
In September 2021, the Associated Press reported that Sheikh Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Sabah and Hussain Al-Musallam were targeted by the U.S. Department of Justice for suspected racketeering and bribery in relation to FIFA. According to the AP, in 2017, the US formally requested evidence from Kuwait. American prosecutors "wanted to establish if the suspects made other payments to Lai, or if their accounts were used to wire possible bribe payments to other soccer officials."
In August 2023, Husein Al-Musallam was named in US court documents as having received payments from the State of Qatar at his Qatar National Bank account in Singapore as bribes and for facilitation of further bribe payments to FIFA officials.

IOC Ethics Investigation into Alleged Commission Request

In July 2017, the International Olympic Committee Ethics Commission launched an investigation into Husain Al-Musallam, in his capacity as the Director General of the Olympic Council of Asia, following allegations reported by The Times, Der Spiegel, and SwimVortex. These reports accused Al-Musallam of attempting to secure a 10% commission from potential sponsorship contracts. The controversy stemmed from a recorded conversation, released by journalist Jens Weinreich, which documented a meeting between Al-Musallam and a Chinese marketing agent. During this meeting, Al-Musallam is allegedly heard proposing that he and OCA president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah receive 10% of any OCA sponsorship deals for the Asian Games as a 'commission'.

Other

Al-Musallam said he had been cleared by the Kuwait Olympic Committee's Ethics Commission of wrongdoing related to a contract with the Gulf State Games, claiming that the allegations are "baseless" and "politically motivated" and that the Ethics Committee had found "no violation of the rules" after reviewing all documentation.