Governing Bodies
AHMAD’S ENDORSEMENT MAY AMOUNT TO DECEIT, SAYS EX- FA CHIEFTAIN
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
One of the key players in CAF politics in West Africa has informed Sports Village Square that the endorsement of Ahmad to run again for the position of CAF president may be a gross deceit.
Forty six FA presidents across the six regional zones of CAF have issued a statement to support the candidature of Ahmad to run again in the election slated for Morocco in March.
But the source informed that Ahmad may not be swayed by the statement as he would probably take it as gross deceit.
The 60-year old Madagascan who ruled his national FA for 17 years prior to being elected as CAF president three years ago was reportedly to have once remarked that he can never trust African delegates when it comes to election.
He himself had been a beneficiary of deceit. The 46 endorsement out of obtainable 54 ordinarily put him at a vantage position to retain his seat.
But prior to his emergence in 2017, Issa Hayatou had garnered endorsement from 50 delegates out of 54 who were expected to vote at the election held in Addis Ababa.
But at the election, Hayatou got just 20 votes while the remaining 34 went to Ahmad. In essence, 30 of those who endorsed him prior to the election deceived him!
The source in West Africa further informed that Ahmad had once stated that he understood African politics very well as most who were in Hayatou’s camp were actually moles planted.
Ahmad, who was briefly arrested by the French anti-corruption police last year June, is currently under investigation by FIFA. In addition, he has been accused of taken some African FA chiefs to Saudi Arabia which is also being viewed as unethical.
Mohamed El Sherei, a sacked CAF Finance director blew the lid off a deal that saw Ahmad funding flights and expenses of several CAF board members, FA presidents across Africa going on the Umrah (lesser Hajj Pilgrimage) in May 2018.
CAF election has always being a reflection of electoral processes across Africa where incumbent always come up with self-serving regulations. Such was the case in the 2013 election that saw Hayatou’s only challenger, Jacques Anouma of Cote d’Ivoire disqualified paving the way for the Cameroonian to win unchallenged.
Six months earlier, CAF held a meeting in the Seychelles where they overwhelmingly approved an amendment of their statutes to declare that only voting members of the executive committee could run for president.
Anouma is on the committee, because he is one of the continent’s FIFA representatives, but does not have voting powers.
The timing of the change in decree led many to believe that Hayatou deliberately forced it through when he learnt of Anouma’s plans to run for president.
In the days leading to the 2017 election that produced a new president in 29 years, DR Congo’s Omari Constant Selemani was a suspected mole in the Hayatou’s camp and was one of the 50 that endorsed the Cameroonian ahead of the election where the old man merely managed to get 20 votes.
According to our source, such machinery is most likely to be at work again following the current 46-man endorsement that Ahmad has received.
He is of the opinion that the ‘revolutionaries’ that ensured the overthrown of the ancient regime has since disintegrated.
He pointed at Nigeria’s FA chief, Amaju Pinnick as the arrowhead of the revolution. ‘But as you must have known, he is no longer with them in spirit’.
Ahmad’s emergence as president in 2017 owed a lot to a broad continent-wide coalition spearheaded by Pinnick which ended the hegemonic decades-long rule of Hayatou.
He further accused Ahmad as exploiting linguistic divide by sidelining Anglophone countries while prompting up the numerically stronger Francophone countries.
Governing Bodies
Nigeria becoming an epicentre of global badminton as Francis Orbih enters the Badminton World Federation Council
Laurels on the courts and now glory in the boardroom sums up the mark that badminton is making in Nigeria.
The President, Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN), Francis Orbih, has been elected as a council member of the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
The election took place during the BWF Annual General Meeting on Saturday in Xiamen, China.
Orbih emerged victorious over top contenders from other African countries.
He will join Cameroon’s Odette Assembe Engoulou on the council, while Chipo Zumburani (Zimbabwe) and Hadia ElSaid (Egypt) missed out.
An elated Orbih expressed his gratitude to fellow badminton presidents across the globe for their trust and support.
He said, “I am deeply honoured by the trust placed in me by my peers across the badminton world.
“I look forward to quality representation, driving development initiatives, and strengthening badminton’s global reach over the next four years.”
Orbih also acknowledged the support of the Federal Government of Nigeria, particularly the National Sports Commission (NSC), which he said played a significant role in his successful bid.
“The Chairman and the Director General of the NSC monitored the entire process. I’m grateful for their involvement and confident Nigeria will benefit from this,” he stated.
He further appreciated the BFN board members and the Nigerian badminton community for their prayers and continued belief in his leadership.
“From the day I declared my intentions, the board members of BFN have been supportive, and I promise not to disappoint them,” Orbih concluded.
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A former member of the FIFA Council, Mamoutou Toure, has been released from jail in Mali after almost two years in detention for alleged corruption, Malian media reports said on Wednesday.
Toure, president of the Malian Football Federation since 2019, was released after 622 days in prison on Tuesday.
He served on the FIFA Council, world football’s all-powerful decision-making body, for four years until last month when he lost his seat after failing to contest new elections.
The 67-year-old was arrested in August 2023 on allegations of embezzling $28 million of public funds but was granted a provisional release order by the Malian courts, reports said.
He was accused of misconduct during his time as the National Assembly’s financial and administrative director from 2013-2019.
Toure denied all charges and, during his time in jail, was last August re-elected as Malian Football Federation president for a second consecutive term, with his supporters claiming he was a victim of a conspiracy fuelled by detractors.
While in jail, he received a letter of support from FIFA president Gianni Infantino. However, as of last month, Toure is no longer a member of the FIFA Council or the Confederation of African Football’s executive committee.
-Reuters
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The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has denied reports of an outstanding debt to former captain Christian Chukwu and has challenged anyone with verifiable documents to prove otherwise.
Chukwu, a former national team captain and chief coach, died last Saturday.
The Nigeria Football Federation decried statements in a section of social media that the football-ruling body was indebted to the deceased.
Reacting to one statement on social media that claimed NFF owed the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations-winning team captain the sum of $128,000, NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, said: “There is no record in the NFF of any outstanding indebtedness to ‘Chairman’ Christian Chukwu.
“During the first term of the Board headed by Amaju Pinnick, a committee was set up to diligently peruse the papers of coaches who were being owed, even from previous NFF administrations.
“That committee was given the clear mandate to verify all debts and ensure that the coaches being owed were paid immediately. I am aware that the ‘Chairman’ was in the employ of the NFF between 2002 and 2005, before he was relieved of the post following the 1-1 draw with Angola in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Kano in August 2005. There is certainly no record of indebtedness to him in the NFF.”
Sanusi challenged anyone with genuine and verifiable documents of NFF indebtedness to any coach, who has worked with any of the National Teams over the past two decades, to come forward and tender those documents.
“As a credible organization that is very much alive to its responsibilities, if we are confronted with any genuine document of indebtedness to any coach, we will offset the debt immediately.”
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