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The process of Ahmad Ahmad breaking the reign of 28-year predecessor Issa Hayatou for the Confederation of African Football (Caf) presidency might make for a fascinating book one day.
By the manner in which Cosafa (the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations) president Phillip Chiyangwa describes ita�s this might have the intrigue of a spy novel.
Cosafaa�s with the overthrow at their elections in Sun City in December of Hayatou ally Suketu Patela�s began and were central to an effective palace coup of a seemingly immovable Caf president.
Chiyangwaa�s as Ahmada��s campaign managera�s said he travelled the continent and the world ensuring the process that would lead to the former Madagascar sports ministera��s election went smoothly.
a�?In the (Cosafa) AGM at Sun Citya�s we agreed prior to that election who was going to be the executivea�sa�? the charismatic Chiyangwa said.
a�?I would be presidenta�s who would be the vice-president; some members would be the exco.
a�?Thata��s the approach we took on this Caf campaign. As Cosafa we could not miss this chance.
a�?Mr Hayatou and his team had engineered a constitutional resolution that there would be no challenge to him from outside the executive committee of 17. Those (people) were handpickeda�s most of thema�s with very few FA presidents.
a�?That inhibited any challenge from anybody.
a�?When you look at the Fifa statutesa�s even I can challenge for the Fifa presidency. (Gianni) Infantinoa�s the new presidenta�s came from Uefa as their secretary-general.
a�?That sort of position is whata�s in our next AGMa�s we will adopt for Caf.
a�?The reason why we have Ahmad is because Ahmad went into Cafa�s fighting his way in. He was not an a�?Issa mana��.
a�?Coming out of Cosafaa�s we felt honoured that people from other regions approached us and him to saya�s a�?Can he standa�s if we back him upa��.a�?
Chiyangwa said Ahmada��s camp knew from their campaigning that they would overthrow Hayatou.
a�?By the time we seized power we knew our opportunity had been consolidated. There had been meetings in Mexico and other places where we talked about this.
a�?Finally the opportunity was there to remove first the Cosafa executivea�s and then put our best person to run for the Caf presidency.
a�?Then take on other executive members out of Africa (who) also did not qualify to challenge Issaa�s because of that constitutional point.
a�?You then had a team of people who were able to come together and pool their resources. Someone from Morocco is in (the Caf exco)a�s someone from Tunisia is ina�s someone from DRCa�s Ghanaa�s Liberiaa�s Sierra Leonea�s South Africa.
a�?But these people also have certain people who support them. And when you then put that togethera�s the collection of that support gave us those numbers.
a�?(Being elected to Cafa��s exco) Danny Jordaan got 35 votesa�s Ahmad 34a�s Constant Omari from DRC 35.
a�?But these are the numbers we had already spoken about. Because this is something I was doinga�s checking with the candidatesa�s auditing information they gave mea�s cross-checking it with the individual FA presidentsa�s and seeing whether that number was correct.
Cosafa talked tough on breaking West African stronghold on Caf after Hayatoua��s defeat
a�?Even at my birthday party we did mention the number 35. And thata��s what we got.
a�?Thata��s how this culminated in what we have today a�� Ahmad.a�?
Chiyangwaa��s birthday party in Harare on February 23 was attended by 24 African FA presidentsa�s and was where Ahmada��s challenge on Hayatou was consolidateda�s less than a month before Cafa��s congress in Addis Ababaa�s Ethiopia in mid-March.
– Online
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