The Confederation of African Football CAF has announced that its president, Issa Hayatou will have a contender when the elections are held on March 16, 2017 after serious contenders from the strong football nations chickened out to avoid clash with the incumbent.
His only contender is the president of the Malagasy Football Federation, Ahmad Ahmad whose country, Madagascar was coincidentally stripped of the hosting right for the 2017 U-17 Nations Cup after the Executive Committee met in Libreville, Gabon last Thursday.
However, no reason was given by CAF for the withdrawal of the hosting right but it announced that “Following the reports of the CAF inspection teams, the CAF Executive Committee unanimously decided (with the exception of the President of the Malagasy Football Federation) to withdraw the hosting rights of the Total U-17 Africa Cup of Nations 2017 from Madagascar.”
An indication that Hayatou may not be enjoying good relationship with the FIFA president, Gianni Infantino emerged when sources disclosed that Infantino may be throwing his weight behind Ahmad to stop the Cameroonian from returning to the position he has held since 1998.
It would be recalled that CAF under the supervision of Hayatou, changed its bylaws in September last year stating that the maximum number of terms in office for any president will now be limited to three.
It however, added that the new law will not take effect until after the 2017 election and does not prevent Hayatou from running again. If re-elected, Hayatou, now 70 will remain in office till 2021 even though he told Radio France International October last year that though he was seeking another term of office, he would not stay “another twelve years” at the head of the African body.
He was blamed by the IOC in December 2011 after being implicated in a corruption case in connection with FIFA’s former International Sport and Leisure (ISL) marketing agency.
Meanwhile, despite the controversy surrounding his nomination for election into the CAF Executive Committee, NFF president, Amaju Melvin Pinnick is expected to confront the outgoing member of West Africa zone B position, Anjorin Moucharafou from Benin Republic who is re-contesting.