National Sports

Easy ride for Ahmad

Incumbent CAF president Ahmad Ahmad is set  for a second term as 46 of the 54 member associations have endorsed him.

Heads of associations of 46 member associations, including FAM president Walter Nyamilandu,  last week pended their signatures in support of the incumbent.

The support comes despite Madagascar’s Ahmad, who took charge in 2017, having yet to formally announce his intention to stand in the March 12 elections.

The deadline to apply is November 12, with no formal bid having yet been submitted by any candidate.

Ahmad is yet to declare his interest

On the reasons for supporting Ahmad, Nyamilandu yesterday said: “He deserves a second term, having done a fantastic job to restructure the operations of Confederation of African Football (CAF) and significantly improve its finances.”

The FAM president brushed off suggestions that he is supporting Ahmad so that he can help him retain his Fifa Council position.

BBC reported that a statement signed by the heads of all Africa’s six regions suggests that the 60-year-old will have widespread backing should he opt to run again, even though he is the subject of an ongoing Fifa Ethics case.

“Today, we, presidents of the six Councils of African Football Associations, supported by 46 presidents of our 54 member associations, call on Ahmad to run for a second term to continue with his achievement,” the statement reads.

“If he decides to do so, we will support him.”

A simple majority is required to win the CAF presidential election and only eight African nations did not put their name to the statement. They are Algeria, Botswana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) said it will not go into a bloc arrangement with Cosafa, who are backing Ahmad  and they will go it alone.

Zifa president Felton Kamambo was yesterday quoted by The Herald newspaper of Zimbabwe as having said:  “As Zifa, we do not believe in group decisions because sometimes the decisions are not real at all. We are a stable institution. Whatever decision that we make on who to vote for, we will stand by it.”

Last month, Nigeria FA boss Amaju Pinnick refused to rule himself out of the race, saying: “There were ‘a lot of things fundamentally wrong in Caf right now.”

Ahmad’s  reign has been more dogged by controversy than reform.

He is the subject of a Fifa ethics investigation which could possibly derail his bid after former secretary general Amr Fahmy made various allegations to football’s world governing body against him which Ahmad denies.

Fifa has not released information about the ethics investigation, but has sent auditors to CAF, with Pricewaterhouse Coopers—in a damning report that leaked in February—questioning missing funds amounting to over $20 million while also calling for further investigation into Ahmad’s role in the Tactical Steel affair.

On the other hand, Ahmad supporters will point to the creations of an expanded 24-team Nations Cup and a new Women’s Champions League, signing a landmark headquarters ruling with Egypt and recently providing $300 000 to each member association to help fight the financial impact of coronavirus among his achievements.

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