By Andrew Warshaw
November 3 – South Africa’s Tokyo Sexwale still has work to do before convincing his own African confederation that he should become their preferred candidate for the FIFA presidential election.
Sexwale is being backed by his own national federation and had hoped, in Cairo last week, to hear he had earned the support of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), FIFA’s biggest grouping with 54 associations.
However, the CAF Executive Committee, which heard from four leading contenders including the former anti-apartheid icon, said it would wait for the campaign to start before publicly backing any one candidate.
“The CAF Executive Committee at its meeting at the CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, has taken note of submissions by candidates for the FIFA presidential election scheduled for 26 February 2016,” read a CAF statement.
“The meeting served the climax to the CAF annual meetings, and between 25 and 28 October 2015 audiences were granted to four declared candidates for the FIFA presidency. They are Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, Gianni Infantino and Tokyo Sexwale.
“After discussions with them, the CAF Executive Committee unanimously decided to leave the administrative procedures for the registration of candidates to take its course, while giving plenty of time to decide, with the interest of the continent the primary objective.”
At least Sexwale knows he is ahead of Liberian Football Association president Musa Hassan Bility who, tellingly, was not invited to speak by his own region. Former FIFA deputy general secretary Jérôme Champagne did not make a presentation either.
Bility has been at loggerheads with CAF for some time and was denounced by CAF president Issa Hayatou in August for declaring his candidacy without consulting his African colleagues. And in 2013 he was banned for six months for allegedly violating statutes relating to the use of confidential documents though Hayatou himself could be accused of manipulating CAF statutes too in order to remain in power.
CAF released a terse statement that its exco “decided unanimously not to give Musa Bility the support he requested”.
The outspoken Bility responded by saying it was not all about Africa. “I don’t want to come across as an Africa candidate. I am running as a candidate of the world. I am running as a candidate of football,” said the Liberian who would nevertheless surprise no-one if he withdraws before the February 26 election to replace Sepp Blatter.
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