By Andrew Warshaw
January 18 – In a seemingly deliberate move to avoid being accused of conflict of interest, African football boss Issa Hayatou is distancing himself from his confederation while the FIFA presidential campaign gains momentum.
Hayatou is FIFA’s acting president as a result of Sepp Blatter’s eight-year ban and does not want to be seen to influence how individual African federations vote at the February 26 ballot.
Last Friday, as head of the Confederation of African Football, he signed a memorandum of understanding with his Asian counterpart – led by emerging FIFA presidential favourite Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa. The deal raised eyebrows in some quarters terms of whether this was a subtle ploy to sway African voters towards Sheikh Salman. African officials have denied this but Hayatou has taken steps to move out of the CAF spotlight ahead of the ballot by putting his first and second vice-presidents in temporary charge.
On its website, CAF said its leader “has temporarily stepped aside as the head of CAF to give way for other officials . . . to be in charge of the confederation’s activities” until the FIFA election.
“They will be in charge of relations between CAF, other confederations, members and candidates for the FIFA presidential elections until the conclusion of the FIFA electoral process.
“They will be particularly responsible for conducting the African delegates at the FIFA Congress on 26 February 2016 in Zurich, Switzerland.”
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