20 Mar 2017

Issa Hayatou’s three decades at the helm of Africa’s football governing body has come to an end.

Ahmad Ahmad of Madagascar defeated Hayatou by 34 votes against 20 on March 16 at the Nelson Mandela Hall of the African Union (AU) building in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Botswana Football Association (BFA) president Maclean Letshwiti was among the 54 football federation who casted their votes.  

Since he took charge at CAF in 1998, Hayatou has been challenged only on two occasions, given that in 2000, Armando Machado of Angola stood against him and Hayatou won by 47-4 votes and in 2004, he humiliated Botswana’s Ismail Bhamjee by 46-6 votes.

Ahmad, a former player and coach did not only make history by beating Hayatou with a big margin, but he is also the first CAF president from the COSAFA region to lead the body, given that from 1957- 1958 CAF was headed by Abdel Aziz

Abdallah Salem, he then passed the baton to his countryman, Abdel Aziz Abdel Aziz Moustafa who ruled CAF for 10 years from 1958 to1968.

Abdel Halim Muhammad of South Sudan took over in 1968 to 1972, from 1972-1987 Yidnekatchew Tessema of Ethiopia took over, and from 1987 to 1988 Sudan’s Abdel Halim Muhammad was at the helm of the African football governing body.

However in 1988, Issa Hayatou took over until he was beaten hands down by Ahmad on March 16.

Ahmad was quoted by Kwese ahead of the elections saying, “This is now no longer just Ahmad. I am now representing the people of COSAFA who have put this big responsibility on me, and the African people at this election. We have to make a change. We have to be more open, more transparent and inclusive in CAF,” he said.

However, after the elections were announced Ahmad said to reporters “I can’t talk at this time. Only one thing I thank God, I thank my team. We worked hard but we won. That was the first step. The second step is to develop African football. Some days I thought I would win today I didn’t .When you try to do something, you mean that you can do it. If I can’t do it, I never stand. This is sweet victory. When you work hard for years and months and you succeed, that is great.”

Meanwhile, for the election of the members of the CAF Executive Committee for the 2017- 2021 cycle the COSAFA region members, Danny Jordan of South Africa and Rui Eduardo Da Costa of Angola were elected to seat in the executive committee.

The women slot was contested between Isha Johansen of Sierra Leone and Lydia Nsekera of Burundi and Johansen won 35-12. ENDS