Hayatou faces stiff challenge

ADDIS ABABA. — Confederation of African Football president Issa Hayatou will face a rare challenge today as he stands for an eighth term at the helm of the African game when CAF hold their Congress in the Ethiopian capital. Ahmad, a Madagascan government minister who uses a single name, will contest today’s vote and is only the third challenger Hayatou has faced since he became CAF president in 1988.

The other opponents — Armando Machado of Angola in 2000 and Ismail Bhamjee of Botswana in 2004 — were roundly beaten but Ahmad is the first to have received expressions of support from among CAF member countries, including the grouping of 14 southern African countries (COSAFA) and Nigeria.

Hayatou and his opponent have waged a lively election campaign over the last two months, featuring an unusually high number of public pronouncements for a process that is traditionally played out behind closed doors.

The 70-year-old Hayatou, who also serves as FIFA’s senior vice president and is from Cameroon, promises continuity while Ahmad says it is time for change.

“Basically, what we all want is a change in leadership in the system and in how we manage the confederation,” he said in an interview.

“We live in a time of transformation. The majority of federation presidents have changed. There are many more young people than before.”

The Madagascar Football Federation president said he was confident of support, even though only COSAFA and Nigeria have so far gone public.

“Others won’t say it publicly. I know that and I respect their position.”

The election for the CAF president is followed by elections for seven of the 15 places on the organisation’s executive committee.

Then there will be a tightly run contest for Africa’s seven places on the new-look FIFA Council, the all powerful cabinet that runs the world game.

Meanwhile, Hayatou, born a prince and emperor of African football for three decades, has been at the centre of scandal — but never wounded — for much of his life. The 70-year-old Cameroonian, seeking an eighth term as head of CAF in an election today, defied his royal roots early on when he chose sport as a career.

“It was a scandal in my family. I wanted to do sport, that was my passion,” Hayatou said in an interview with Jeune Afrique magazine.

He went on to represent Cameroon in basketball and athletics, holding the national 400m and 800m records for a while. While other football barons — Sepp Blatter, Michel Platini and the like — rose and were deposed by football’s riches, Hayatou has faced allegations that came to nothing. Hayatou became FIFA’s figurehead acting president and guided it through elections after Blatter’s downfall.

This CAF election will be the first in which he has faced a serious challenge.

Hayatou comes from the Garoua region of northern Cameroon, where his father was the sultan when he was born on August 9, 1946.

The influence of the wealthy Muslim family goes far beyond their poor home region.

The Hayatou clan is close to the ruling party of President Paul Biya, who has been in power in Cameroon since 1982. The CAF leader’s brother, Sadou Hayatou, was prime minister in 1991-1992.

Another brother, Alim Garga Hayatou, has been secretary of state for health for many years and has taken on the sultan’s title.

Issa Hayatou has largely stayed out of Cameroon politics.

Having chosen sporting studies, rather than architecture in a foreign college, Hayatou became a physical education teacher at the General Leclerc school in Yaounde, which drew the children of the country’s top families.

At 28 he became secretary-general of the Cameroon football federation and 11 years later its president. — Reuters.