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IT’S now turning into a traditional February reunion for African football leaders, just few months before they elect the president of CAF.
Harare hosted the show, with 24 leaders of African Football Associations converging in the capital for what was essentially a birthday party, for the then ZIFA president, Philip Chiyangwa.
FIFA boss, Gianni Infantino, and world football governing body general secretary, Fatma Samoura, also turned up for the show.
And, so did Ahmad Ahmad, then a man largely unknown, outside his home country of Madagascar, who had taken the gamble to challenge long-serving CAF president, Issa Hayatou.
With COSAFA having thrown their weight behind Ahmad, Hayatou cried foul, claiming the birthday party was merely a cover for people to meet and plot to overthrow the Cameroonian strongman.
Hayatou and his lieutenants cried foul.
“The CAF leadership has been informed that a meeting is convened by yourself in your capacity as COSAFA chairman, in Harare Zimbabwe on February 24th 2017, right after the FIFA executive summit planned in Johannesburg on February 21st to 23rd 2017,’’ they said in a letter to Chiyangwa.
“Such a meeting would not include only presidents of member associations of COSAFA but also presidents of many member associations outside the zonal union of COSAFA.
“The CAF leadership would like to remind you that you do not have the authority to convene such a meeting without CAF knowledge nor without its required approval.’’
However, the meeting went ahead and, amid the meals and the drinks, the visitors also discussed the CAF presidential elections, set for Addis Ababa, the following month, where Ahmad shocked Hayatou.
This week, four years later, the leaders of African FAs, including ZIFA boss, Felton Kamambo, are expected in Doha, Qatar, for the finale of the FIFA Club World Cup.
However, with another round of elections, for the CAF presidency, on the way next month, there is no question they will, just like they did at that Harare retreat, take time to discuss the forthcoming polls.
South African candidate, Patrice Motsepe has also travelled to the FIFA Club World Cup to cement relations he has recently established with voting delegates.
Motsepe travelled with SAFA president and CAF vice-president, Danny Jordaan, to Qatar‚ where African FA presidents have been invited by FIFA, to attend the tournament.
Bayern Munich‚ who beat Pitso Mosimane’s Al Ahly in the semi-finals‚ meet Mexico’s Tigres in tonight’s final.
Ahly meet Brazil’s Palmeiras in the third-place playoff.
SAFA communications director, Dominic Chimhavi, said Motsepe intends to cement relations he made with most of the African FA presidents, on a trip to Cameroon, last month.
Motsepe is running against Jacques Anouma of Cote d’Ivoire, Augustin Senghor of Senegal and Mauritanian Ahmed Yahya for the CAF presidency, in the March 12 elective conference in Rabat‚ Morocco.
“There is a month to the election. So, it’s just a follow-up from his trip to Cameroon where he met almost 80 percent of the voting delegates‚” Chimhavi told TimesLIVE yesterday.
“All those delegates‚ all the 54 FA presidents‚ have been invited and are also going to Qatar for the Club World Cup.
“If you are campaigning you need to be very visible. And there is no better place for that than in these kinds of competitions.
“All the FA presidents were invited to the Club World Cup. So, Motsepe is not going to just appeal to the African presidents‚ but it’s good for him to network with the rest of the world too.”
Motsepe last month travelled to Cameroon to meet continental FA presidents coinciding with the delayed 2020 CHAN finals.
Chimhavi said Motsepe set up crucial one-one-one meetings with FA heads in Cameroon and Qatar.
“In Cameroon he made it a point that he meet every FA president to have a heart-to-heart chat and say‚ “This is me‚ this is what I’m selling and intend to do in African football,” the SAFA official said.
“I was there to prepare some of those logistics. He met these FA presidents one by one in his private room. He invited them in‚ and managed to have a sit-down with each FA president.
“And, the body language says to me that the feeling was that‚ ‘This is the man who can revive the dwindling fortunes of CAF. This is a clean man who can give us a fresh start.’’
Chimhavi said Jordaan’s presence‚ and the support, when he visits such events, of Chiyangwa — both of whom played a role in ending Hayatou’s 29-year reign as president — helps CAF outsider Motsepe in networking.
COSAFA, a bloc with 14 votes‚ has publicly supported Motsepe’s bid but it’s always difficult to get everyone in the region to sing the same song.
Ahmad‚ who was banned from football for five years by FIFA for ethics violations in November 2020‚ was last month reinstated temporarily as CAF president by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, pending an appeal‚ which is to be heard on March 2.
The CAF executive committee‚ in a heated meeting in Yaounde‚ this weekend, were Ahmad was asked to leave the indaba, rejected the recommendations from their governing arm for Ahmad to be reinstated in the race for the CAF presidency.
Instead, the CAF Exco said the matter has to be decided by FIFA. — Sports Reporter/TimesLive
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