Ahmad’s CAF is biggest basket case in football
With apologies to Lewis Carroll, the
never-ending stream of bizarre events
within African football might well be
termed “Ahmad Through the Looking
Glass”. But who most resembles
the Mad Hatter, the Red Queen, the
Cheshire Cat and their fantastically
gruesome colleagues is anyone’s
guess. Right now, CAF is a basket case.
This is the reason FIFA president
Gianni Infantino decided to send in
secretary-general Fatma Samoura
to effectively take control.
Africa’s confederation – and
the game over which it sort of rules- has long been an administrative
minefield. Never does an international
tournament go by without at least
one squad threatening a strike over
non-payment of money or the
accommodation chasm between
foreign and home-based stars.
The Africa Cup of Nations is rarely
sure of its host until weeks before the
finals, even after a nation has been
selected and awarded the contract.
All of this could be managed while
CAF was expanding from its original
four members in 1956 to 56 now. But
the steady inflow of new independent
nations, with their freshly enfranchised
politicians and structures, owed more
to excitement and less to expertise.
CAF presidents such as Ethiopia’s
Yidnekatchew Tessema (1972-1987)
and Issa Hayatou (1988-2017)
managed to keep a lid on it all by
virtue of personal pragmatism, favours
and the power bestowed by top-table
membership of FIFA.
But Hayatou sowed a wind of
change in confusing longevity with
Keir
RADNEDGE
THE INSIDER
loyalty and duly reaped the whirlwind
as Madagascar’s Ahmad dared what
others feared to do and put his head
above the political parapet.
Ahmad’s timing was perfect because
Infantino, in FIFA office only a year, was
intent on clearing out the old guard, and
that included Hayatou. Already Ahmad
was in Infantino’s good books for having
effected an introduction to Samoura.
The Senegalese United Nations official
ticked all Infantino’s boxes in the
gesture politics of reform as a black,
Muslim woman. She was duly appointed
FIFA SG in the summer of 2016.
Such evidence that Ahmad had
friends in high places encouraged
support from Nigeria FA president
Amaju Pinnick, plus other central
and west African federations as well
as the southern COSAFA grouping.
In March 2017, despite speculation
about a FIFA ethics inquiry into his
links with banned ex-Asia supremo
Mohamed Bin Hammam, Ahmad,
swept Hayatou from power by 34 votes
to 20 at CAF Congress in Addis Ababa.
Ahmad set to work at CAF with
apparently little thought or care for
his rivals and enemies in the process.
He had campaigned on a platform
of administrative reform, financial
transparency and competitionsreorganisation but his structural
achievements have been minimal:
CAF still does not have its own
ethics committee and the disciplinary
committee has no credibility.
At least on the competitions front
the AFCON has been shifted from
January/February to June/July and
the Champions League (like South
America’s Libertadores Cup) will switch
to a one-off Final from the traditional
two-leg affair.
As for CAF’s other power-brokers:
OConstant Omari was detained briefly
in DR Congo on embezzlement charges
(which he denied)
OGhana FA president Kwesi Nyantakyi
was banned over bribery allegations
(also denied)
OSierra Leone’s Isha Johansen had
to spend two years beating off fraud
allegations back home (successfully)
OCAF general secretary Amr Fahmy
was sacked after reporting to FIFA’s
ethics panel allegations against Ahmad
concerning sexual harassment of staff,
misuse of funds plus sportswear
contract anomalies
OAnd Liberia’s Musa Bility quit the CAF
emergency committee in protest at a
“president who is leading this noble
organisation in the wrong direction”
Bility has since been banned fromDispute...Wydad
walk off during
the Champions
League FinalProblems...(left to right)
Samoura, Infantino and AhmadTHE WORLD THIS MONTH