To stay up to date on African news, subscribe to the “Monde Afrique” newsletter from this link. Every Saturday at 6 am, find a week of current events and debates treated by the editorial staff of “Monde Afrique”.
On January 8, the Governance Commission of the African Football Confederation (CAF) had validated the candidacies of the Ivorian Jacques Anouma and the Senegalese Augustin Senghor, failed that of the Malagasy Ahmad Ahmad, while the files of the South African Patrice Motsepe and Mauritanian Ahmed Yahya were put on hold, the time to carry out checks. The two men were to be auditioned in Cairo on Thursday January 28.
They ultimately did not have to pass this great oral, since the International Football Federation (FIFA) prematurely ended the suspense on Tuesday. The body which directs world football had announced the color, clearly stating its intention to get involved in the electoral process. She had warned the executive committee of CAF that she would study, via its electoral commission, the files of each candidate. And this unsurprisingly validated the candidacies of Jacques Anouma and Augustin Senghor, but also those of Patrice Motsepe and Ahmed Yahya, while once again rejecting the dossier of Ahmad Ahmad. The four selected were informed individually on Tuesday by a letter from FIFA.
But, in Africa, the latter’s behavior is perceived as interference. “It’s a form of disavowal for CAF. I don’t think FIFA would have done the same in the context of the election of the president of the European federation, UEFA, for example. As CAF is weakened by the suspension of Ahmad, FIFA gives the impression of controlling things ”, summarizes, on condition of anonymity, the leader of an African federation.
Cleaning operation
The big loser of the case is obviously the Malagasy Ahmad Ahmad, suspended for five years in November 2020 by FIFA, in particular for ” abuse of power “ and ” embezzlement “. The former CAF president can still bet on a favorable verdict from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), before which he lodged an appeal to contest this suspension. But the decision of the Swiss jurisdiction is slow in coming, which does not bode well for the ousted president, currently in Madagascar.
“If the CAS does not rule quickly, that is to say in the first days of February, it will be almost impossible for him to consider campaigning, even if the judgment is favorable to him. The election is set for March 12. The CAS seemed at first in a hurry to act, but today that no longer seems the case ”, estimates a person close to the file. In the Malagasy entourage, the hypothesis of seeing the former leader running for a second term seems to be receding.
FIFA also rejected the candidacies of two influential figures in African football, who were vying for a post on the FIFA board. They are Constant Omari, interim president of CAF, but also of the Congolese Football Federation (FECOFA), and Kheireddine Zetchi, at the head of the Algerian federation. The first is the subject of an investigation by the FIFA ethics committee, while the second was overtaken by a sanction imposed by CAF in 2018 and another dating from 2016 from the authorities of Algerian football, then that he was the leader of the Paradou AC club. FIFA’s clean-up operation continues.
