Sheikh Salman beat UAE rival Yousef Al Serkal and Thailand's Worawi Makudi in the first round of voting when he gathered 33 of the 46 ballots to amass the necessary two-thirds majority.

The build-up to the vote was dominated by claim and counter-claim of outside interference, with the powerful Olympic Council of Asia accused of lobbying on behalf of Sheikh Salman.

In return, FIFA expressed concern over allegations that Bin Hammam had also been active behind the scenes, despite his ban from football activities.

Former Saudi Arabian candidate Hafez Ibrahim Al Medlej, who withdrew from the race late last night, also suggested that FIFA had brought its influence to bear on the process.

Human rights groups accused Sheikh Salman of leading a purge of players and officials during Bahrain's violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011.


Sheikh Salman will complete Bin Hammam's truncated term, which finishes in 2015.

The Qatari stepped down from the post last year following a long battle against claims of bribery and financial mismanagement.

China's China's Zhang had been acting on an interim basis.

Following the Presidential vote, Sheikh Salman was then elected to FIFA's ruling Executive Committee, securing 28 votes to Qatari Hassan Al Thawadi's 18.

Sheikh Salman had narrowly failed to unseat Bin Hammam from FIFA's Executive Committee in 2009, losing a hostile vote of AFC members 23-21, with two votes deemed invalid because they were spoilt.

The result was greeted by loud celebratory cheers and shouts in Arabic from the floor after a speedy process which was carried out at the plush Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

"Today I'm proud and happy, proud and happy to see the Asia football family gathered together," said Sheikh Salman.

"Proud and happy to see our family united under one roof in the capital of Asian football.

"We need complete reforms, what we need is an AFC where decision makers are accountable."

As a result of the election, Sheikh Ali Bin Khalifa was forced to announce his resignation from the AFC Executive Committee so that Sheikh Salman could assume the Presidency.

Member Associations are only allowed one seat in the AFC Executive Committee.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter claimed he hoped that it would mark a new chapter in Asian football. 

"It is a historical day because it is a day of election, a day of election in your confederation that has been in a difficult situation during the past two years," he said.

"And together you have overcome all these difficulties and now you are in this situation where you are going to have a restart.

"But I would identify this restart as an intermediary restart because then the right start will be in two years in 2015...you have two more years to put your house in order."

Australia's Moya Dodd was anointed as the AFC's mandatory female vice-president, and two other women - North Korea's Han Un-Gyong and Palestinian candidate Susan Shalabi - earned seats on the Executive Committee.

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