By Andrew Warshaw
January 26 – South Africa’s Tokyo Sexwale, increasingly regarded as an outsider, has been challenged by his own federation to explain his low-profile FIFA presidential campaign.
Sexwale, the only African candidate bidding to replace Sepp Blatter, was quick to follow Prince Ali bin al-Hussein in pulling out of Wednesday’s planned televised debate at the European Parliament in Brussels using the excuse that there was no longer any point in attending.
But the fact is he has made little impact ahead of the vote on February 26, with his own confederation refusing to endorse his candidacy. The Confederation of African Football says they will make a decision on which of the five candidates to back on February 5.
“The NEC (National Executive Committee), which is the highest decision-making body of the association, raised concerns about his low-profile campaign and they want him to come and explain himself,” South African FA spokesman Dominic Chimhavi told AFP.
Sexwale, the anti-apartheid political prisoner turned millionaire business tycoon, played a key role in helping South Africa secure the 2010 World Cup and also serves on FIFA’s anti-discrimination committee. He is up against Prince Ali, Asian football boss Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al Khalifa, UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino and Frenchman Jerome Champagne.
Plans for him to meet his association’s leadership on Monday were scrapped because Sexwale was overseas, apparently en route to Brussels. A spokesman for Sexwale told Reuters it made no sense to attend with only one other candidate now confirmed, Jerome Champagne. “We were on our way to Brussels, but we are turning around and going home,” said the spokesman.
In one of his rare interviews since declaring himself a candidate, Sexwale said: “I didn’t want to be (FIFA) president but seeing the problems I thought I would stand. I feel very sorry for (Blatter). I don’t say he was a friend but he is a friend… Blatter’s work is a monument that stands for itself.”
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