How Pinnick Lost to the Conspiracy of Serving FA Presidents in Africa

FIFA COUNCIL SEAT

Duro Ikhazuagbe 

Former President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Melvin Pinnick, yesterday narrowly missed joining the late Etubom Oyo Orok Oyo as the only Nigerians to have served two terms on the exalted FIFA Council. 

Pinnick who secured 28 votes, lost by a single vote at the poll that took place as part of the 14th CAF Extraordinary Congress in Cairo, Egypt on Wednesday morning.

Dr Amos Adamu is the other Nigerian who also served a single term of four years on the FIFA Council. His bid to returned to the hallowed chambers of the world football governing body was truncated by the ban slammed on him for ethical infractions.

In yesterday’s election, Morocco’s Fouzi Lekjaa swept the polls with highest 49 votes followed by Egypt’s Hany Abou Rida and Niger Republic’s Djibrilla “Pele”  Hamidou netting 35 votes each.

Lekjaa, Rida, Hamidou, Ahmed Yahya of Mauritania and Souleman Hassan Waberi of Djibouti will join CAF President Patrice Motsepe (South Africa) who was voted 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.

According to inside information at the Congress, Pinnick who was favoured to retain his seat with about 40 votes,  lost out to the conspiracy of the group in CAF who wants only serving FA presidents on the FIFA Council.

“It was a grand conspiracy just few hours to the election when a group within CAF started pushing for only serving FA Presidents to be on the FIFA Council. Amaju Pinnick who was sure of at least 40 votes to retain his seat, suddenly realized that he was now up in arm against this powerful interest group. It was surprising that he could even muster 28 votes, losing by just a single vote,” revealed one of the FA presidents that was in Cairo for the election yesterday to THISDAY.

He strongly believes that the single  vote voided would have gone to Pinnick. That would have caused a tie of 29 votes each for Yahya, Waberi and Pinnick. With this, there would have been a rerun where anything could have happened for the last two candidates to emerge for the FIFA Council seats.

However, yesterday’s election threw up issue of imbalance in the composition of Africa’s representation at the FIFA Council as the Anglophone group was completely left out. All the six members belong to the Arab and French speaking bloc in the continent. Motsepe is in as CAF President and one of the eight vice presidents, each representing the six confederations.

Another FA president from Central Africa who also would not want his name in print confided in THISDAY that stopping Pinnick from returning to the FIFA Council was all part of the grand plan to whittle his influence in the continent ahead of 2029 when billionaire businessman Motsepe would have completed his second term as CAF President and ready to hand over to another candidate.

“If you look at how the candidates for the FIFA Council were elected, you will realise that it is a deliberate plot to handover the CAF Presidency to the North Africans come 2029. They just didn’t want Pinnick around the world governing body so as to whittle his influence in African football politics,” observed this powerful voice on African football.

It was widely speculated that Motsepe who Pinnick worked so hard to get elected as CAF President in his first term would most likely co-opt the Warri-born football administrator into the CAF Executive Committee as compensation.

In the other elections for the CAF executive committee 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) were elected  while Bestine Kazadi Ditabala (DR Congo)  is representing the female gender on the board.