anuel Nascimento
is a vocal critic of
the Confederation
of African Football
and FIFA’s attempts
to exert greater
control over CAF, but the world body’s
attempts to sideline the controversial
president of Guinea-Bissau’s Football
Federation (FFGB) look to have
backfired.
Once an African football backwater,
Guinea-Bissau’s qualification for their
debut Africa Cup of Nations in 2017
and a second successive appearance
last year gave Nascimento a platform
to voice concerns over alleged
corruption in CAF.
Known locally as Manuelino,
Nascimento also supportedJerome
Champagne as a rival candidate to
Gianni Infantino in the 2016 FIFA
presidential elections, but frequently
ran into problems at home.
These ranged from a rebellion
by clubs over financial irregularities
that caused the 2018 Campeonato
Nacional to be postponed, to allegedly
firing a pistol at academy owner, Adile
‘Kaby’ Sebastiao.
Complaints by the clubs drew
no response from FIFA, who finally
intervened this summer. Nascimento
was handed a decade-long ban from
football for his alleged role in a mob
justice incident, when a mobile phone
thief was trapped in a tyre and
threatened with petrol.
A video clip of the incident spread
via social media, prompting the FIFA
ban, which was issued on the eve of
the FFGB elections with Nascimento
running for a third term of office.
Nascimento claims he was helping
free the thief and the ban has boosted
his standing in the former Portuguese
colony. “Now 70 per cent of the people
here support him,” says Causo Seidi,
president of second-tier side Mansaba.
At a hastily convened meeting on
August 8 at the Hotel Ledger in Bissau,
a vote was held for a new president,
but only 25 of the FFGB’s 38 members
attended due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Eight of the FFGB members that
were allegedly at the election then
subsequently contested the poll’s
validity. “No one was accredited to take
part in the said congress,” said Pelundo
vice-president Erriosto Mendes.
The Guinea-Bissau Sports Medicine
Association, the referee’s association
AGAF and clubs including Mavegro,
Quinara, Sport Bissau e Benfica and
Porto de Bissau also claimed no one
from their organisation who was there
was eligible to vote.
The country’s electoral commission
annulled the result and local election
rules say three months’ notice must beWORLD SERVICEgiven before a new vote is held, which
means waiting until November although
some clubs want an earlier poll.
Nascimento could run again as in
August he travelled to Europe to lodge
an appeal at the Court of Arbitration
for Sport against his ban and100,000
Swiss francs fine. “I really don’t know
if am going to stand for it again,” said
Nascimento. “Because our CAF
presently is composed by [a] corrupt
president who doesn’t care about
football and its development.”
The favourite is Carlos Teixeira,
known as Caito, a former international
who played professionally in Portugal
and Switzerland. “If I’m not running for
it, I think to support [Caito] strongly,”
says Nascimento.
Last season was abandoned due to
COVID and the 2020-21 Campeonato
Nacional is due to start in October, but
even if football does resume there may
be little change if Caito wins with
Nascimento active in the background.Banned
FIFA ban for former
president sparks chaos
at federation
M
Guinea-Bissau...The team
at last year’s AFCONBanned...Manuel
NascimentoNascimento was handed a decade-long ban from
football for his alleged role in a mob justice
incident, when a mobile phone thief was
trapped in a tyre and threatened with petrolGuinea-Bissau
STEVE MENARY