How Ahmad Ahmad beat long serving Issa Hayatou in the CAF polls

[PHOTO: COURTESY]

The new Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Ahmad Ahmad put up a well-calculated campaign that ensured he bagged the top post during Thursday’s elections in the Ethiopian capital.
Furthermore, the 57-year-old took advantage of a lethargic approach to the campaign by the former President Issa Hayatou who after almost three decades in charge assumed the seat was his for the taking.
Fifa President Gianni Infantino also played a crucial role in ensuring that Hayatou was shown the door. There was telling hostility between Infantino and the former CAF boss. This was very obvious from their body language.
All these factors played a big role in ensuring that Ahmad won the final vote 34-20 and ended Hayatou’s long reign.
The new CAF President assembled a team of relatively inexperienced Football Association presidents who were elected in the recent past to run his campaign.
Nunuheb Ludwig the second vice chairman of the Namibia Football Association said the plan to remove Hayatou started with the Confederation of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) members.
“We were very optimistic that other regions would buy into idea of having change at the top. We were passionate about a new generation taking over and knew that Ahmad represented what we wanted. He has been in CAF for long which gave him invaluable experience,” he said.
He added that on the eve of the elections, they were sure of getting at least 26 votes which was just two short of the number they needed to win in the first round.
“We knew the number was more than 34 and that some of our supporters did not want to show themselves due to fear of a backlash.”
Another source who asked not to be named said that Infantino was constantly on phone with the friendly federations to ensure all the votes were in the basket.
“He made a three-week tour of African countries to solicit support for Ahmad. Hayatou on the other hand never campaigned. He assumed it will be business as usual but things had changed significantly,” he said.
Another federation president who asked not to be named said Hayatou engaged them at an individual level and preferred to send people to them. “He always assumed he had our support and therefore saw no need to engage us. He was aloof and totally out of touch with reality. I think he was blinded by his success at CAF and perhaps assumed that this seat was always his.”
Trouble for Hayatou started when delegates rejected proposed amendments to the CAF statutes. Though those backing the changes managed 29 votes, they still could not get the two thirds needed to pass any amendments after 19 delegates voted against. — Gilbert Wandera