How Ahmad ousted Hayatou
JOHANNESBURG: Danny Jordaan, head of Safa has finally been invited to Caf’s top table following years of failure.
The veteran administrator clinched 34 votes and is now part of the Caf executive committee. But the big news of yesterday’s general assembly in Ethiopia was the election of a new president.
Ahmad Ahmad, the little known head of the Madagascan FA, dethroned Issa Hayatou to become the new Caf president – managing to gather 14 more votes than the incumbent, whose supremacy as the head of African football had stretched to nearly 30 years.
Once the ballots were counted, it was then announced that 57-year-old Ahmad had been elected Caf president and was to serve the continent for the next four years.
It is believed that there were three major talking points that swayed the election in Ahmad’s favour. Cosafa’s declaration Ahmad The Cosafa has never backed down in its belief that Caf needed a new leader.
It was no surprise when Cosafa decided, long before yesterday’s elections, that it would back Ahmad to be Hayatou’s successor. It was touch and go this week, with insiders feeling like the Cameroonian would hold on to power given corridor talks.
But this proved to only be a strategy, with the majority of the football federations determined to vote him out. Cosafa no doubt had a big pull, with as many as 14 associations as it’s members, leaving Hayatou to try and convince the remaining 40 around the continent that he was still the right man for the job. The Harare birthday bash In celebrating his 58th birthday as well as his new post as the new Cosafa president, Zimbabwean business man Philip Chiyangwa last month invited 24 of the 54 football association supporting heads to Harare to break bread and plot Hayatou’s downfall.
It proved significant in helping to usher in a new era for the continent. Chiyangwa, also the commander-in-chief for the Zimbabwe FA, was also Ahmad’s campaign manager and played a crucial role in seeing his Madagascan counterpart ascend to Africa’s most powerful football post. Fifa president Gianni Infantino Also attending the Harare bash was world governing body leader Infantino.
He had made a brief detour to South Africa on his way to their neighbouring country and apparently his presence and short speech at the party went a long way in helping other FA presidents decide whom to vote for.
The Fifa boss urged them to give the heart what it wants, and many of those attending Chiyangwa’s celebration were already learning towards making sure that Hayatou’s reign came to an end.