Sunday Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net
10
Man in the News MARCH 17,, 2013
ISSA HAYATOU
Again, the highest prize for the seventh time
ANDREW EKEJIUBA
O
n March 10, 2013, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) president, Issa Hayatou, was re-elected without opposition for a seventh and final four-year term in charge of the organisation. Hayatou, 66, who was the only sole candidate standing, was voted in unanimously in Marrakech, Morocco. Jacques Anouma, an Ivorian, had intended to challenge him for the leadership but was prevented from doing so by a rule change that barred him from standing for election. However, Anouma’s attempt to overturn the decision to disqualify non-executive members from the election was rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). After his re-election, Hayatou used the opportunity to make reference to Anouma’s challenge. “The presidents of the federations approved an amendment preventing a few of them from participating in the race for the CAF presidency, which now permits only those who have held positions of responsibility within the institution to run for presidency. “The conduct of the Executive Committee along with the members of national associations during this case was exemplary. The principle of sovereignty of the General Assembly was recognised by the Court of Arbitration for Sport,” Hayatou told delegates. Hayatou, who was applauded by delegates at the CAF congress in Marrakech, received a special certificate as a mark of solidarity from FIFA to commemorate the 25 years he has completed at CAF. Hayatou is the fifth CAF president and by far the longest serving. He will clock 70 years at the expiration of his last tenure in office. Hayatou has been CAF President for over two decades and has overseen particularly successful FIFA World Cup
ap a pearances by Senegal, Nigeria and an Cameroon. He also appearances pushed for African places in the fin finals to increase from two to five, with the 2010 World Cup C in South Africa seeing the hosts garner an auto automatic sixth spot for an African team. b and the organisHe presided over both the bid Wo ing committee for the 2010 World Cup, the first in Africa. expande the Africa Cup of Hayatou’s tenure expanded 1 teams, in a confedNations finals from eight to 16 i six zones and five eration of over 50 nations, in regional confederations. Club competitions have undergone a simila growth in both similar numb number and scale, with more clubs participating Afri in the African Cup of Champions Clubs, the CAF Confederation bega in 2004 for nationCup (which began al cup winners and high-placed league Cup and the CAF Super teams), the CAF Cup, Cup. There has also been an expanme football, with the sion outside men’s CAF overseeing Youth, Women, Fuss tal, and Beach soccer competitions. m One of the major aims of Hayapresidenc in the late 1990s tou’s presidency was to provide an incentive to Afriwh can football clubs which would stem the player to Europe; an iniflow of African players l tiative which met with little success. Hayatou has couched some criticism of the uneven flow of football ‘resources’ in colonial terms, saying that “rich countries import the raw material – talent – and often send their less valuable technicians”, an implied criticism of foreign coaching staff that were employed by most African national sides. A September 1997 initiative negotiated by Hayatou with UEFA saw the payment of fees to African governing bodies and clubs for African-born players working in Europe. This was followed by the Meridian Project signed in December 1997 with UEFA, which was to provide cash payments to African National Associations every other year, and created the UEFA-CAF Meridian Cup. The 1999 Goal Project created with FIFA gives 46 African FAs financial support worth one million dollars over four years. These negotiations, regardless of their impact on African club football, forged a close relationship between UEFA leaders and Hayatou, and led to UEFA’s backing of Hayatou’s nomination to replace Sepp Blatter as head of FIFA in 2002. However, Blatter supported by the American and Asian confederations, defeated Hayatou by 139 to 56 votes to retain his presidency. Just days before the end of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, Hayatou, found himself in the middle of a controversy after the CAF’s suspension of Togo national football team from the next two editions of the Africa Cup of Nations. Hayatou charged the Togolese government with interference in the Togolese Football Association’s affairs when the team withdrew from the 2010 cup prior to its start. The Togolese team was victim of a January 8, 2010, armed attack while traveling to Angola by bus prior to the start of the Cup, resulting in two deaths in the Togo delegation. Togolese captain Emmanuel Adebayor and Togo coach Hubert Velud strongly criticized Hayatou in particular for the CAF decision, calling on him to resign from the CAF
presidency. Aside the aforementioned, in November 2010, Andrew Jennings, the presenter of FIFA’s Dirty Secrets, an edition of BBC’s flagship current affairs programme Panorama alleged that Hayatou had taken bribes in the 1990s regarding the awarding of contracts for the sale of television rights to the football World Cup. Panorama claimed to have obtained a confidential document from a company called ISL which showed that Hayatou was paid 100,000 French Francs by the company. ISL won the contract to distribute the television rights. Expectedly, Hayatou denied the allegations, saying that the money went not to him but to CAF and IOC announced it will investigate Hayatou, due to his membership of the organization. In May 2011, The Sunday Times published claims from a whistle-blower that Hayatou had, along with fellow Executive Committee member Jacques Anouma, accepted $1.5 million bribes from Qatar in order to secure his support for their bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. But on September 21, 2011, it was announced that FIFA had appointed Hayatou as President of FIFA’s Olympic committee and approved his role as chairman of the Goal Bureau. This decision caused confusion in IOC because prior to the appointment, the CAF President was under investigation for alleged bribery. It was later denied by FIFA that Hayatou had been appointed President of the Olympic committee and sports pundits described the apparent appointment as “a technical error”. The re-elected CAF President is a former Cameroonian athlete and sport executive who was born on August 9, 1946, in Garoua, Cameroon. He was the son of a notable local Sultan, before becoming a middle distance runner and physical education teacher. The Hayatou family is the traditional holder of the sultanate (Lamidat, from the Sokoto Caliphate’s traditional Fula title Lamine) of Garoua. Hayatou had a successful career as an athlete, becoming a member of the Cameroonian national squads in both basketball and athletics. He held the national record many times in the 400 and 800 metres. As earlier noted, the Hayatou family wields much political influence in northern Cameroon and most notable is Issa’s brother Sadou Hayatou, a former Prime Minister of Cameroon and longtime high official under Cameroon president Paul Biya. In 1974, aged just 28, Hayatou became Secretary General of the Cameroon Football Association, and Chair of the FA in 1986. As chair, he was chosen the same year to sit on the CAF Executive Committee. And following the retirement of Ethiopia’s Ydnekatchew Tessema from the CAF presidency in August 1987, Hayatou was elected as the fifth president in the body’s history. In 2002, he ran for president of FIFA but was defeated by current president Sepp Blatter. Hayatou is also a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). And in November 2010 he was alleged by the BBC to have taken bribes in the 1990s regarding the awarding of World Cup television rights. The IOC has announced it will investigate him. On November 3, 2007, Hayatou was awarded an honorary degree from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology in Ogbomosho, Oyo State, Nigeria. He is married with four children.