CAF cock-up as Comoros call for Cameroon to be cut
January 30 – Having been stripped of the right to stage this summer’s African Nations Cup, Cameroon are now facing a move to ban them altogether.
Africa
Banned Bwalya let back into FIFA and CAF families after appeal reduces his sentence
By Andrew Warshaw
January 29 – FIFA has staged a rare u-turn by reducing the two-year ban on Zambia’s former African Footballer of the Year, Kalusha Bwalya (pictured).
League football returns to Sierra Leone but Johansen’s team declines to play
January 29 – League football has returned to Sierra leone despite the country still being suspended internationally by FIFA.
South Sudan to host international in Uganda as Juba stadium is refurbed
January 29 – South Sudan’s Football Association (SSFA) has revealed that the country’s national teams will stage all their international matches this year in Uganda’s capital Kampala.
Infantino buddy Chiyangwa rallies COSAFA support for presidential election
By Andrew Warshaw
January 28 – Southern African countries have thrown their full weight behind FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s bid for re-election in June, a somewhat pointless exercise given that, as things stand now at least, he is the sole candidate for the job although, as revealed exclusively today in Insideworldfootball, a European rival to Infantino is being lined up.
CAF agrees to pushing date of AFCON back to avoid Ramadan
January 28 – Having been controversially awarded this summer’s African Nations Cup despite a history of fan violence, Egypt has gained yet more concessions from the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
CAF board member Ngaissona extradited to The Hague for war crimes trial
January 25 – French authorities have handed a leading African football administrator Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona over to the International Criminal Court in The Hague where he faces war crimes charges. He was transferred to the Netherlands on Wednesday.
CAF bans Egypt’s Ismaily from Champions League after fans stone players and officials
January 24 – The image of Egyptian football has taken another battering five months before hosting the Africa Cup of Nations in place of Cameroon.
Ghanaian journalist who worked on Nyantaki corruption story is murdered by gunmen
January 18 – A Ghanaian undercover journalist has been shot dead following an exposé about a massive corruption scandal in African football.
Rumours of Pinnick’s arrest exaggerated as lawyers say there is no crime
January 16 – Attempts to arrest Nigerian FA chief Amaju Pinnick, a strong ally of FIFA president Gianni Infantino, and four other NFF board members on allegations of corruption have been suspended according to local reports.
Banned Sedibe points $10m finger at Jordaan. SAFA says it was government money
January 13 – Danny Jordan (pictured), the public face of the 2010 World Cup, is once again embroiled in controversy following allegations by one of his former rivals within South African football that he helped facilitate a $10 million payment to Concacaf to land the tournament.
No inspection, vote dates changed: SAFA complain AFCON 2019 vote was rigged
January 10 – South Africa have reacted with anger and bewilderment over the rejection of their bid to stage this summer’s African Nations Cup, dismissing suggestions of sour grapes and saying due process was not applied.
FIFA steps in to run Namibian FA as infighting and cash issues leave football ‘paralysed’
January 10 – Namibia is the latest country to be subject of a normalisation committee imposed by FIFA to run its affairs as a result of a bitter internal squabble.
Andrew Warshaw: Politics, the African elephant in the room of CAF decision-making
Things rarely go according to plan in African football, as one French publication emphasised this week. The decision to strip Cameroon of staging this coming summer’s African Nations Cup may have been a deeply hurtful blow to the original hosts but hardly took anyone by surprise given the nature of African football’s leadership which has, quite frankly, become a laughing stock.
Salah beats club mate Mane to African player of year award
January 9 – Liverpool’s Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah has won the African footballer of the year award for the second consecutive time.