CAF: support for Infantino was not unanimous
Contrary to official statements from the Confederation of African Football, the Executive Committee never gave "unanimous" support to Gianni Infantino. In reality, only four people declared themselves to be behind the FIFA president.
Romain MOLINA · Author profile ·
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Accustomed to false statements, from its financial reports to the summaries of its meetings, CAF has once again distorted reality when it announced “unanimous” support for Gianni Infantino.
When the Executive Committee met on Thursday, August 6, there was never unanimity on this subject, quite the contrary. Only four officials declared during the meeting that they were in favor of the FIFA president: Patrice Motsepe, Fouzi Lekjaa (president of the Royal Moroccan Federation), Ahmed Yahya (president of the Mauritanian Federation), and Souleiman Waberi (president of the Djiboutian Federation). Names that will surprise no one.
Idriss Diallo also supportive
While other presidents are in favor of keeping Infantino within the Executive Committee, such as Idriss Diallo the president of the Ivorian Federation, the other members did not respond and preferred to abstain from any comment.
Privately, several officials were literally stunned by the gap between CAF’s official statement and the reality of the behind-the-scenes debates. Nevertheless, the silence of the majority of Comex members should not be interpreted as full-fledged opposition to Infantino, far from it.
Many currently prefer to remain silent while waiting to see which trends will emerge. The FIFA president still has many supporters in Africa, whether because his program will give even more money to the federations (and their leaders), or because some fear that FIFA’s Ethics Committee will open a file against them for their management…
And if greed and fear are arguments in favor of Infantino, another reality is clear: if a credible opponent comes forward, everyone prefers to keep their options open; in football more than anywhere else, the law of the strongest will always end up prevailing...