Nigeria’s Amaju Melvin Pinnick is highly favoured to retain his seat as a member of the 37-member FIFA Council when elections are conducted at the 14^th Extraordinary General Assembly of the Confederation of African Football in Cairo, Egypt on Wednesday.

The debonair football administrator is at the forefront of the race alongside Moroccan Fouzi Lekjaa and Egyptian Hany Abou Rida, with 10 persons to battle for the available five seats when the poll is called inside the Marriott Mena House on Wednesday morning.

Africa has seven seats on the FIFA Council, with the sitting CAF President’s position guaranteed.

One of the seven seats is reserved for a woman, and here, CAF’s sitting 5^th vice president Kanizat Ibrahim from the Comoros Islands will slug it out with sitting member Isha Johansen from Sierra Leone.

The contest for the FIFA Council seats will certainly be the fiercest ever, with Ivorian Yacine Idriss Diallo, Senegal’s Augustin Senghor, Niger Republic’s Djibrilla ‘Pele’ Hima Hamidou, Zambia’s Andrew Kamanga, Mauritanian Ahmed Yahya, Benin Republic’s Mathurin De Chacus and Djibouti’s Souleman Hassan Waberi also in the poll.

CAF President Patrice Motsepe, who is also unchallenged for a second term at African football’s helm, keeps his seat without any sweat, but will watch keenly as only half of the contestants, all strong and deft politicians in their rights, make it to the esteemed FIFA Council.

Each of the 54 Member Associations will have the opportunity to vote five persons in the densely-populated male category, and one of the two women. President of NFF, Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau, who will vote on behalf of Nigeria, landed in Cairo on Sunday in company with the General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi.

The Government of Nigeria, which publicly endorsed Pinnick’s candidacy through the Presidency in July 2024, is robustly represented, with Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Alhaji Shehu Dikko, and Director-General, Hon. Bukola Olopade on ground.

There were indications on Tuesday morning that Mauritania’s Yahya may also sail through in the contest at the extraordinary general assembly that begins at 9am Nigeria time.

Unlike the elections into the FIFA Council, the race for seats into the CAF Executive Committee has been weakened by zonal arrangements that have seen single candidates emerge in most zones, except the southern African region where firestorms are expected.

South African mining billionaire Motsepe comes from the COSAFA region where four candidates, viz, Elvis Chetty (Seychelles), Alfred Randriamanampisoa (Madagascar), Mohamed Ally Samir (Mauritius) and Feizal Ismael Sidat (Mozambique), battle for two seats.

Elsewhere, Cameroonian legend Samuel Eto’o Fils, who needed the intervention of the Court of Arbitration for Sports to be reinstated on the ballot, is the sole candidate for the UNIFFAC (Central Africa) region, as Mustapha Ishola Raji (Liberia) for the WAFU A zone; Kurt Edwin-Simeon Okraku for the WAFU B zone and; Algeria’s Sadhi Walid for the UNAF (North Africa) zone.

The only female seat is also uncontested, with Congolese Bestine Kazadi the only candidate on the ballot.

FIFA Council Poll: Amaju Pinnick (Nigeria); Fouzi Lekjaa (Morocco); Hany Abou Rida (Egypt); Ahmed Yahya (Mauritania); Yacine Idriss Diallo (Cote d’Ivoire); Augustin Senghor (Senegal); Djibrilla ‘Pele’ Hima Hamidou (Niger Republic), Andrew Kamanga (Zambia), Mathurin De Chacus (Benin Republic) and Souleman Hassan Waberi (Djibouti).

Female Seat: Kanizat Ibrahim (Comoros); Isha Johansen (Sierra Leone)

CAF Exco Poll: Samuel Eto’o (UNIFFAC, unchallenged); Sadhi Walid (UNAF, unchallenged); Mustapha Ishola Raji (WAFU A, unchallenged); Kurt Edwin-Simeon Okraku (WAFU B, unchallenged); Elvis Chetty (COSAFA); Alfred Randriamanampisoa (COSAFA), Mohamed Ally Samir (COSAFA) and Feizal Ismael Sidat (COSAFA)

Female Seat: Bestine Kazadi (DR Congo)

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Four-times African Footballer of the Year Samuel Eto’o has won the right to be included on the list of candidates for the Confederation of African Football’s elective congress next week after initially being ruled out of the contest.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has upheld an appeal by Eto’o against his exclusion from the CAF executive committee elections in Cairo next Wednesday.

Eto’o, president of the Cameroon Football Federation, was excluded by CAF’s governance committee in January but appealed his case to sport’s highest court CAS, who ruled in his favour.

“Following a hearing on 3 March 2025, it is ordered that the CAF executive committee includes Eto’o in the list of candidates for election to the committee,” said a CAS statement.

“The CAS Panel considered that it was presented sufficient information to overturn the CAF Executive Committee’s decision concerning Eto’o’s ineligibility.

“It will be for the CAF Extraordinary General Assembly Meeting on 12 March to make its own evaluation of the candidates.”

No grounds were given when CAF excluded Eto’o in January, but the 43-year-old former Cameroon striker was suspended last year by world soccer’s governing body FIFA and CAF.

In September, FIFA banned him from attending the national team’s matches for six months for violating disciplinary regulations, after allegedly verbally abusing match officials at the Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Colombia.

Earlier in the year, CAF banned Eto’o after an inquiry into purported breaches of its ethical and integrity standards when he took up a role as ambassador for a betting company.

The ban and a $200,000 fine were later lifted on appeal.

The fiery Eto’o might be one of Africa’s finest ever players but he has proven a divisive figure in the administration of the game, both in his own country and in the international arena.

CAF will next week hold elections for its top posts, including the president of organisation and the continent’s representatives on the FIFA Council.

The deadline for submission of candidates was in November but African football’s governing body has failed to publish a list of them with the election less than a week away.

However, CAF president Patrice Motsepe is standing unopposed for a second four-year term.

-Reuters

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Players’ union FIFPRO called for a review of governance in Gabonese soccer after welcoming on Wednesday a life ban handed by world body FIFA to a former youth coach found guilty of the sexual abuse of players.

The banned former under-17 coach, Patrick Assoumou Eyi, was also fined 1 million Swiss francs ($1.13 million).

FIFA’s independent ethics committee found Eyi guilty of “abusing his position and committing repeated acts of sexual abuse against multiple players” between 2006 and 2021.

FIFPRO said the ban was the result of “over three years of sustained pressure from civil society, FIFPRO and the media to ensure accountability” but there was more to be done.

“This case illustrates the systemic nature of this grave problem, where an individual may be sanctioned, but the same governance system that allowed it to occur in the first place remains,” it said.

Remy Ebanega, president of the Gabonese player union, said in the statement that the abuse had been widely known about within Gabonese football but “many of those in power chose to turn a blind eye”.

“Ignoring abuse is a clear breach of FIFA regulations, and we now expect a full review of the Gabonese FA’s suitability to govern football in Gabon,” he said.

Reuters has sought a comment from the Gabonese soccer body Fegafoot. There was no mention of FIFA’s action on their Facebook page or website.

-Reuters

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