adminAfrican football body CAF said on Saturday that they will back incumbent Sepp Blatter in the 2015 Fifa presidential election. “Africa will offer unanimous support to president Blatter at the next elective assembly,” CAF secretary general Hicham El-Amrani told a media conference in Addis Ababa. CAF held a series of meetings in the Ethiopian capital this week and chose Cameroon (2019), Ivory Coast (2021) and Guinea (2023) as Africa Cup of Nations hosts.
Although the statement does not bind the 54 national associations of CAF to vote for Blatter, most are likely to support the 78-year-old Swiss.
He is hugely popular among African football officials, most notably for bringing the World Cup to the continent for the first time in 2010 when South Africa played host.
Financial assistance and development schemes introduced since Blatter took office in 1998 have also won him approval.
When CAF president Issa Hayatou challenged Blatter for the Fifa presidency 12 years ago, many African delegates reportedly voted for the Swiss.
As yet, Blatter has no official challenger.
Former top Fifa official Jerome Champagne from France wants to run against the man he once advised, but must get at least five member states to nominate him. —AFP
derick.khumalo