BEVERLY HILLS, March 12, (THEWILL) – South African mining billionaire businessman Patrice Motsepe, is set to be the eighth President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) as he will run uncontested at the continental governing body’s elective conference in Morocco on Friday. On Thursday issued the updated list of candidates for election following the decision from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) regarding the eligibility of the candidates.
The magnate Motsepe appeared on the list as the sole candidate for the position of president. He is therefore sure to be the new president of CAF as he will run uncontested at the continental governing body’s elective conference in Morocco on Friday.
The 59-year-old will be declared the successor to Ahmad Ahmad of Madagascar at the general assembly in Rabat. He will break the records by becoming the first English-speaking president of CAF since the formation of the organisation in 1957.
The withdrawal of the initial hopefuls for the top seat such as Augustin Senghor of Senegal, Jacques Anouma of Ivory Coast and Ahmed Yahya Mauritania was all but confirmed by the latest publication from CAF.
Their withdrawal and the stay of FIFA’s ban on Ahmad due to accusations of abusing the CAF office, mishandling funds and trading in gifts by CAS cleared the path for the sole position of Motsepe for the presidency of CAF.
As part of the arrangement of their withdrawals, the 55-year-old Senghor and Yahya, who is 44 will take the vice-presidency roles, while the 69-year-old Anouma is poised to be made a special adviser to the new president, Motsepe, as rewards for conceding the top spot to him as per the deal that was finalised in the previous month’s agreement in Rabat.
There is still another hotly contested race that is expected to take place in the jostle for the six seats on the FIFA council. This tussle did not have the same agreement as the presidential contest did and so will play out to the end.
Among those contesting are the flamboyant Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) president Amaju Melvin Pinnick and his Zambian counterpart, Andrew Kamanga; a woman’s representative slot, which is being contested by the incumbent head of Sierra Leone football, Isha Johansen, and Lydia Nsekera of Burundi, who has already served on the global football governing body’s council previously.
A total of 17 individuals are in the running for the 13 positions in the CAF executive committee, where a woman representative must also be voted in.
Meanwhile, aside Ahmad’s suspension, there was another CAS intervention at the election. The Court upheld the decisions of the CAF governance commission to declare Cameroon’s Seidou Njoya and Guinean Mamadou Souaré eligible to stand for election to CAF’s executive committee.
This followed an appeal to the sports tribunal by contestants to their eligibility which failed to sail, clearing the path for them to contest.
