Governing Bodies
Cairo is a jinx city for Amaju Pinnick
BY MITCHELL OBI
When it comes to seeking a place in CAF and FIFA, Nigeria’s Amaju Pinnick should avoid anything to do with Cairo, the Egyptian capital and home of the Nile.
Indeed, this Cairo he should strive to see no more.
I recall vividly how he looked like L’Etranger and how only a fingerful of us tried to console and comfort him after losing the first vice Presidency of CAF in the dispensation of the Island boy Ahmad.
It was a low moment for the one who could easily have become CAF President when the then incumbent Ahmad was briefly arrested in Paris.
It was difficult that day at the Marriott Hotel to have a drink as we were all touched by the way our colleague Osasu weaved the story of Amaju’s lonesome displacement by Ahmad.
Today, in the same Cairo, just by one vote, he lost the opportunity to have a repeat representation in the FIFA Council of Africa’s most populous and passionate nation. Winning and losing are marks for sportsmen, but when victory in an election is lost by a vote it compares to the pain of missing a sudden death shootout.
Only time would tell whether Cairo would one day provide a healing balm for the former czar of Nigerian football.
Sadly, the anglophone voice will be missing in the FIFA Council and it is left to imagine what his staunch friends, Gianni Infantino and Patrice Motsepe would be whispering to him.
Some time to play the game, you must only be useful as they think you are useful. Just like he worked extremely hard and wide to get Ahmad elected and then got betrayed, so also today we are counting on a president whom he virtually nominated, sold and canvassed to us all for his acclamation.
Motsepe does not like to stay in Cairo, but he must find a befitting role for a friend indeed and in need.
Can we see a co-opted member of the CAF Exco from Nigeria…Don’t need to go to the pyramids to give good comfort to a true Gunner for life!
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Brazilian soccer great Ronaldo said that he was pulling out of the race to be president of his country’s football association (CBF) on Wednesday after failing to gather enough support from regional federations to present a candidacy.
The 48-year-old, a former Ballon d’Or winner and two-time World Cup champion, announced his intention to run for the presidency in December in an attempt to “recover the prestige and respect that Brazil always had” following years of controversies involving CBF chiefs.
However, the former Barcelona, Inter Milan and Real Madrid forward came to the conclusion that he would not be able to challenge current president Ednaldo Rodrigues who has the support of almost all the electorate.
“On my first contact with the 27 regional federations, I found 23 closed doors. If the majority of decision-makers believe that Brazilian football is in good hands, it doesn’t matter what I think,” Ronaldo said in a statement published via his social media channels.
“The federations refused to receive me in their homes, on the grounds of their satisfaction with the current administration and support for (Rodrigues’) re-election.
“I was unable to present my project, put forward my ideas and listen to them as I would have liked. There was no openness to dialogue.
“The statute gives the federations the strongest vote, so it’s clear that there’s no way I can run. Most of the local leaders support the incumbent president, that’s their right and I respect it, regardless of my convictions.”
The electoral college is made up of the 27 regional federations, allocated three votes each, while the 20 top-flight Serie A clubs are given two votes each and the 20 second-tier Serie B sides, one vote each.
Rodrigues is expected to be the lone candidate in next year’s election.
-Reuters
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Nigeria’s candidate, Amaju Melvin Pinnick, very narrowly failed to retain his FIFA Council seat, losing by a single vote at the poll that took place as part of the 14th CAF Extraordinary Congress in Cairo, Egypt on Wednesday.
The former NFF President scored 28 votes, only one short of both Ahmed Yahya of Mauritania and Souleman Hassan Waberi of Djibouti, who each scored 29 votes to make it to the exalted panel.
Expectedly, Morocco’s Fouzi Lekjaa swept 49 votes, with Egypt’s Hany Abou Rida and Niger Republic’s Djibrilla Hima Hamidou netting 35 votes each.
Lekjaa, Rida, Hamidou, Yahya and Waberi will join CAF President Patrice Motsepe, unopposed for a second term, as Africa’s representatives at the FIFA Council, alongside Kanizat Ibrahim from the Comoros Island who collected the women’s seat by scoring 30 votes, as against 13 for former FIFA Council and IOC Member Lydia Nsekera and seven for incumbent Isha Johansen.
Andrew Kamanga (Zambia), Yacine Idriss Diallo (Cote d’Ivoire) and Augustin Senghor (Senegal) polled 19, 18 and 13 votes respectively, while Benin Republic’s Mathurin De Chacus withdrew just before the vote.
In the CAF Executive Committee elections, Alfred Randriamanampisoa (Madagascar) withdrew before the vote, leaving Elvis Chetty (Seychelles), Sobha Mohamed Ally Samir (Mauritius) and Feizal Ismael Sidat (Mozambique) to contest for two COSAFA seats. In the event, Sobha Samir and Feizal Sidat were successful.
Unopposed, as the CAF President, were Wallace Karia (CECAFA, Tanzania), Samuel Eto’o (UNIFFAC, Cameroon), Mustapha Ishola Raji (WAFU A, Liberia), Kurt Edwin-Simeon Okraku (WAFU B, Ghana), Sadhi Walid (UNAF) and Bestine Kazadi Ditabala (Female Seat, DR Congo).
FIFA Council Seats: Patrice Motsepe (South Africa); Fouzi Lekjaa (Morocco); Hany Abou Rida (Egypt); Djibrilla ‘Pele’ Hima Hamidou (Niger Republic); Ahmed Yahya (Mauritania), Souleman Hassan Waberi (Djibouti).
Female Seat: Kanizat Ibrahim (Comoros)
CAF Exco Seats: Samuel Eto’o (UNIFFAC); Wallace Karia (CECAFA); Sadhi Walid (UNAF); Mustapha Ishola Raji (WAFU A); Kurt Edwin-Simeon Okraku (WAFU B); Sobha Mohamed Ally Samir and Feizal Ismael Sidat (COSAFA)
Female Seat: Bestine Kazadi Ditabala (DR Congo)
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BY MITCHELL OBI
Now we know clearly and unquestionably who holds the treasured keys to the corridor and palace of CAF power.
Fouzi Lekjaa is more than a politician and beyond the resources and royalty padding him and his office, he should have a reputational religion that helps him win many souls in the African soccer kingdom.
His stupendous vote return in the election must provide material for students of African football politics.
And the thrust will be not on those who supported his candidacy for the FIFA Council but on the five gracious votes that denied him a total clean sweep.
His 49 votes were indeed a staggering return and anyone who aspires to be involved in the politics of the game today should have the blessing of Lekjaa…
Not loud, not ambitious, almost self-effacing with a dutiful bent, this Moroccan football lord has stirred up a new brand of bridge building that is simply engaging and perhaps enduring.
He goes into the FIFA Council with a voice that must be listened to at all times till 2030.
And if anyone may ask is this truly positive, does this commanding influence add value to the game in the continent and above all, is it not better to win votes in an election than this syndrome of contrapted acclamation which denies democratic choices.
For now, it is fair to say that the CAF elections today have provided us with a new visage of football leadership…diligence will always breed prominence.
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