August 11 – South American confederation CONMEBOL ha appointed Paraguay’s Juan Angel Napout as its new president. He takes over from Uruguay’s Eugenio Figueredo until May 2015 when new elections will be held.
Figueredo is moving on to the FIFA executive committee taking the position of Julio Grondona who died last week aged 82. Grondona had been president of the Argentine FA for 35 years and a FIFA executive committee member for 16.
Figueredo had stepped in as president at CONMEBOL following the resignation last April of Paraguyan Nicolas Leoz for health reasons. Leoz had been president for 27 years.
As well Figueredo, CONMEBOL will be sending Colombian FA chief Luis Bedoya to FIFA. The third South American representative on FIFA’s executive is Brazilin Marco Polo del Nero.
New CONMEBOL chief Napout, head of the Paraguayan FA and a relative youngster in South American politics at 56, said after a meeting of CONMEBOL’s executive committee meeting last Friday in Ascunsion: “This is a huge challenge for me because to reach (the presidency of) the South American Football Confederation is the biggest dream there is.”
“We know a lot of things are expected of us but we have the confidence (to see them through)… I’m quite ready for this.”
At the meeting in Asuncion Venezuela’s Rafael Esquivel was promoted to CONMEBOL vice-president, joining Bedoya and Chile’s Sergio Jadue in the position.
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