Former Nigeria Football Federation president Amaju Pinnick last his bid to remain on FIFA Council losing by just one vote during the 14th CAF Extraordinary Congress in Cairo, Egypt on Wednesday.
Pinnick despite his endorsement by Federal government mustered 28 votes one short of the 29 scored by the other contestants vying for the seat. Ahmed Yahya of Mauritania and Souleman Hassan Waberi of Djibouti. With his loss there is no Nigerian representation in the CAF executive commitee and the FIFA Council.
Morocco’s Fouzi Lekjaa swept 49 votes, with Egypt’s Hany Abou Rida and Niger Republic’s Djibrilla Hima Hamidou netting 35 votes each.
Africa has seven seats on the FIFA Council, with the sitting CAF President’s position guaranteed. One of the seven seats is reserved for a woman, and here, CAF’s sitting Fifth Vice President, Kanizat Ibrahim from the Comoros Islands will slug it out with sitting member, Isha Johansen, from Sierra Leone.
Lekjaa, Rida, Hamidou, Yahya and Waberi will join CAF President Patrice Motsepe, unopposed for a second term, as Africa’s representatives at the FIFA Council, alongside Kanizat Ibrahim from the Comoros Island who collected the women’s seat by scoring 30 votes, as against 13 for former FIFA Council and IOC Member Lydia Nsekera and seven for incumbent Isha Johansen.
Andrew Kamanga (Zambia), Yacine Idriss Diallo (Cote d’Ivoire) and Augustin Senghor (Senegal) polled 19, 18 and 13 votes respectively, while Benin Republic’s Mathurin De Chacus withdrew just before the vote.
In the CAF Executive Committee elections, Alfred Randriamanampisoa (Madagascar) withdrew before the vote, leaving Elvis Chetty (Seychelles), Sobha Mohamed Ally Samir (Mauritius) and Feizal Ismael Sidat (Mozambique) to contest for two COSAFA seats. In the event, Sobha Samir and Feizal Sidat were successful.
Unopposed, as the CAF President, were Wallace Karia (CECAFA, Tanzania), Samuel Eto’o (UNIFFAC, Cameroon), Mustapha Ishola Raji (WAFU A, Liberia), Kurt Edwin-Simeon Okraku (WAFU B, Ghana), Sadhi Walid (UNAF) and Bestine Kazadi Ditabala (Female Seat, DR Congo).
FIFA Council Seats: Patrice Motsepe (South Africa); Fouzi Lekjaa (Morocco); Hany Abou Rida (Egypt); Djibrilla ‘Pele’ Hima Hamidou (Niger Republic); Ahmed Yahya (Mauritania), Souleman Hassan Waberi (Djibouti).
CAF Exco Seats: Samuel Eto’o (UNIFFAC); Wallace Karia (CECAFA); Sadhi Walid (UNAF); Mustapha Ishola Raji (WAFU A); Kurt Edwin-Simeon Okraku (WAFU B); Sobha Mohamed Ally Samir and Feizal Ismael Sidat (COSAFA)
Female Seat: Bestine Kazadi Ditabala (DR Congo)
