Pinnick Favoured To Retain FIFA Seat At CAF General Assembly

Nigeria’s Amaju Pinnick is highly favoured to retain his seat as a member of the 37-member FIFA Council at the elections, which will take place at the 14th Extraordinary General Assembly of the Confederation of African Football in Cairo, Egypt, on Wednesday.

The former NFF President is at the forefront of the race alongside Moroccan Fouzi Lekjaa and Egyptian Hany Abou Rida, with 10 people to battle for the available five seats when the poll is called inside the Marriott Mena House on Wednesday morning.

Africa has seven seats on the FIFA Council, with the sitting CAF President’s position guaranteed.

One of the seven seats is reserved for a woman, and CAF’s sitting 5th vice president, Kanizat Ibrahim from the Comoros Islands, will slug it out with sitting member Isha Johansen from Sierra Leone.

The contest for the FIFA Council seats will certainly be the fiercest ever, with Ivorian Yacine Idriss Diallo, Senegal’s Augustin Senghor, Niger Republic’s Djibrilla ‘Pele’ Hima Hamidou, Zambia’s Andrew Kamanga, Mauritanian Ahmed Yahya, Benin Republic’s Mathurin De Chacus and Djibouti’s Souleman Hassan Waberi also in the poll.

CAF President Patrice Motsepe, who is also unchallenged for a second term at African football’s helm, keeps his seat without any sweat.

Each of the 54 member associations will have the opportunity to vote for five persons in the male category and one of the two women.

President of NFF, Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau, who will vote on behalf of Nigeria, landed in Cairo on Sunday in company with the General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi.

The Government of Nigeria, which publicly endorsed Pinnick’s candidacy through the Presidency in July 2024, is robustly represented, with Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Alhaji Shehu Dikko, and Director-General, Hon. Bukola Olopade, on the ground.

There were indications on Tuesday morning that Mauritania’s Yahya may also sail through in the contest at the extraordinary general assembly that begins at 9 am Nigeria time.

Unlike the elections into the FIFA Council, the race for seats into the CAF Executive Committee has been weakened by zonal arrangements that have seen single candidates emerge in most zones, except the southern African region where firestorms are expected.

South African Motsepe comes from the COSAFA region, where four candidates, viz., Elvis Chetty (Seychelles), Alfred Randriamanampisoa (Madagascar), Mohamed Ally Samir (Mauritius) and Feizal Ismael Sidat (Mozambique), battle for two seats.

Elsewhere, Cameroonian legend Samuel Eto’o Fils, who needed the intervention of the Court of Arbitration for Sports to be reinstated on the ballot, is the sole candidate for the UNIFFAC (Central Africa) region, as is Mustapha Ishola Raji (Liberia) for the WAFU A zone Kurt Edwin-Simeon Okraku for the WAFU B zone and Algeria’s Sadhi Walid for the UNAF (North Africa) zone.

The only female seat is also uncontested, with Congolese Bestine Kazadi the only candidate on the ballot.

FIFA Council Poll: Amaju Pinnick (Nigeria); Fouzi Lekjaa (Morocco); Hany Abou Rida (Egypt); Ahmed Yahya (Mauritania); Yacine Idriss Diallo (Côte d’Ivoire); Augustin Senghor (Senegal); Djibrilla ‘Pele’ Hima Hamidou (Niger Republic); Andrew Kamanga (Zambia); Mathurin De Chacus (Benin Republic); and Souleman Hassan Waberi (Djibouti).

Female Seat: Kanizat Ibrahim (Comoros); Isha Johansen (Sierra Leone)

CAF Exco Poll: Samuel Eto’o (UNIFFAC, unchallenged); Sadhi Walid (UNAF, unchallenged); Mustapha Ishola Raji (WAFU A, unchallenged); Kurt Edwin-Simeon Okraku (WAFU B, unchallenged); Elvis Chetty (COSAFA); Alfred Randriamanampisoa (COSAFA), Mohamed Ally Samir (COSAFA); and Feizal Ismael Sidat (COSAFA)

Pinnick Favoured To Retain FIFA Seat At CAF General Assembly is first published on The Whistler Newspaper