I am neither his friend nor his fan, but I like him. He may like me too, but only up to the point where my criticism of his longevity in office as President of the Confederation of African Football is not made public. As soon as that happens, he immediately bares his fangs and strikes with the speed and ferocity of a viper. I tasted of his venom several years ago when I wrote an article in my weekly sports column asking him not to re-contest the CAF presidential elections after serving a fifth term in office.
Issa Hayatou did not take it lightly. He is unforgiving and never takes any prisoners. In the wake of his winning the elections that year, my name was immediately expunged from the next list of the membership of the Players Committee of CAF. It has not been put back since then.
Since then also he has re-contested the presidential elections two more times, won them both and probably has become the longest serving president of a football confederation in history.
That is Issa Hayatou, a man who understands power play and has deployed it effectively in the past to ‘perpetuate’ himself in office without any one brave enough to challenge him. Anyone that dared was cut off the pipeline of Hayatou’s generosity – membership of a committee or sub-committee in CAF. For decades that was Hayatou’s master card, an unfailing strategy that keeps loyalists in check and enemies at bay.
I admit I have been one of Issa Hayatou’s most virulent and persistent critics, so I deserved whatever I received from him as the ‘price’ to pay. I criticised him all the time not for his failings but for continuously making African football administrators look like weaklings and fools as he keeps a stranglehold on football administration in the continent and warehouses football development at his friends’ and loyalists’ whilst he straddles the football planet with the swagger, contempt and arrogance of a dictator whose word is law and must be obeyed, and one who does not care whose ox is gored in the process.
In African football nothing gets done or achieved without Hayatou’s buy in and approval. Every football administrator in Africa knows this yet they allow the situation to fester, afraid of the consequences of challenging him and failing. The fear of Issa Hayatou is the beginning of wisdom.
An international media organisation that I occasionally wrote for have turned down and refused to publish several articles that I wrote considered negative about Hayatou, particularly his strangulating grip on African football and his interminable stay in office. The organisation was always afraid of his reaction. He could actually have revoked their partnership deal with CAF, even if they thought that my views were valid.
That was my main grouse with the man – that he should step aside and allow a younger generation take his place. No one commands the sort of absolute powers he had and remains sane and humble. Otherwise, Hayatou has done well for African football as well as for himself. He should have left honourably and allowed his records and posterity speak for him, after all his achievement may be hard to match in African football: longest serving president of a football confederation in the history of the game; first African interim president of FIFA; first Black man to be made FIFA First Vice President; the man in charge when the World Cup was hosted for the first time on African soil; and so on.
Above all he has been president of CAF for an incredible 29 unbroken years! Under his watch, the organisation grew, taking African football to the global stage with achievements in the various youth tournaments, the Olympics games football event and even the World Cup proper where participating African teams now number 5 (from only one team up till 1982 and with the promise of even more places when new FIFA President, Gianni Infantino’s new World Cup format takes off in 2026). The countries have all been decent ambassadors of Africa but never coming close to winning the coveted trophy yet.
It is ironic that Issa Hayatou’s reign as President of CAF was brought to its terminus last Thursday afternoon in Addis Ababa by a little known football administrator, the president of the football federation of one of the smallest countries in Africa, Madagascar, with hardly any pedigree in African football. That’s how the wise are often confounded by the simple and foolish things of this world.
Ahmad Ahmad, the man who defeated Issa Hayatou to the position , was the most unlikely candidate to stand against the might of Issa Hayatou and win. It was a mismatch on paper. It was David confronting Goliath again without divine intervention. Hayatou never saw it coming until the very end. Had the challenge come from any of the giants of African football, probably he would have taken the challenger more seriously and fought a better fight. This time he was beaten by the elements that took sides with the underdog.
The recent crisis that engulfed the administration of football in FIFA made money a dangerous and unwelcome tool to deploy. In the past money had been the WMD. The world is yet to recover from the fallouts of the still-unfolding scandals in FIFA, and Issa Hayatou would not risk even a skin-deep scrutiny of his activities in African football. He knows he would never survive it given the level of corruption in the system. So the blatant buying and selling of votes were reduced to the barest minimum, and on the resultant level playing field, even an underdog can take IssaHayatou to the cleaners. That’s exactly what happened in Addis Ababa. The election showed how tired of his endless reign Africans have become.
It is comforting to know that a new era has begun in African football; that a new face will now adorn our football billboards, advertising African football; that the days when CAF presidents, driven by greed and wanton corruption, sought to perpetuate themselves in office may now be over forever; that the prospects of some breath of fresh air in African football may indeed be here; that the days when suspended and even convicted administrators will be parading the corridors of African football may be over; that the days when true African football heroes will get the recognition they so richly deserve in the affairs of African football may be here; that the days when CAF will no longer reek with the stench of corruption in its fabric will be not so far away. These are truly comforting thoughts of hope!
Ahmad’s victory is a victory for a new beginning, of hope and of change, of a new era of decency, transparency and accountability. Congratulations to Ahmad Ahmad, Amaju Pinnick and African football!
THE CAF Elections And The Nigerian Minister of Sports.
It is a pity that the Nigerian Minister of Sports came out publicly two days to the election to pitch his tent with the wrong candidate. It is a cardinal rule of all sports federations operating under the statutes of FIFA and the Olympic charter that they are independent bodies and no third party interference in any form or shape is brooked.
To publicly come and announce that the government of a country was mandating the president of the country’s football federation to vote for a particular candidate was daylight interference that could have dire consequences. The Nigerian sports minister made a tactical diplomatic faux pas. I hope he will learn from this experience.
Understandably this is not a terrain he is too familiar with. So, Nigerians can all forgive him.
How Nigerians In CAF Committees Gambled And Lost!
Not the same can be said for the several Nigerian football administrators that are serving as members of different committees and sub-committees in CAF as a result of Issa Hayatou’s patronage. Whoever advised them to publicly endorse Issa Hayatou and condemn Amaju Pinnick’s ambition to be a member of the CAF Executive Committee must now realise it was a big miscalculation and a grave error of judgement. Even if they were demonstrating loyalty to their benefactor and wanted to repay him with their verbal support that does not amount to a single vote in the end, they should have played a safer game and left their options open.
Now that they have gambled everything and lost they should start packing their bags and baggage to exit their once lucrative CAF sanctuaries
Culled from:www.completesportsnigeria.com
