Nigeria’s Amaju Melvin Pinnick is highly favoured to retain his seat as a member of the 37-person FIFA Council – the supreme governing organ for world football – when elections are conducted at the 14th Extraordinary General Assembly of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in Cairo, Egypt, today.

The debonair football administrator is at the forefront of the race alongside Moroccan Fouzi Lekjaa, and Egyptian Hany Abou Rida, with 10 persons to battle for the available five seats when the poll is called inside the Marriott Mena House this morning.

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.

The contest for the FIFA Council seats will certainly be the fiercest ever, with Ivorian Yacine Idriss Diallo, Senegal’s Augustin Senghor, Niger Republic’s Djibrilla ‘Pele’ Hima Hamidou, Zambia’s Andrew Kamanga, Mauritanian Ahmed Yahya, Benin Republic’s Mathurin De Chacus and Djibouti’s Souleman Hassan Waberi also in the poll.

CAF President, Patrice Motsepe, who is also unchallenged for a second term at African football’s helm, keeps his seat without any sweat but will watch keenly as only half of the contestants, all strong and deft politicians in their rights, make it to the esteemed FIFA Council.

Each of the 54 member associations will be able to vote for five persons in the densely-populated male category and one of the two women. NFF President, Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau, who will vote on behalf of Nigeria, landed in Cairo, on Sunday in the company of the General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi.

The Federal Government, which publicly endorsed Pinnick’s candidacy through the Presidency, in July 2024, is robustly represented, with the Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Mallam Shehu Dikko, and Director-General, Bukola Olopade on the ground.

Yesterday morning, there were indications that Mauritania’s Yahya may also win the contest at the Extraordinary General Assembly, which begins at 9:00 a.m. Nigeria time.

Unlike the elections into the FIFA Council, the race for seats into the CAF Executive Committee has been weakened by zonal arrangements that have seen single candidates emerge in most zones, except the southern African region where firestorms are expected.

South African mining billionaire Motsepe comes from the COSAFA region where four candidates viz, Elvis Chetty (Seychelles), Alfred Randriamanampisoa (Madagascar), Mohamed Ally Samir (Mauritius) and Feizal Ismael Sidat (Mozambique), battle for two seats.

Elsewhere, Cameroonian legend, Samuel Eto’o Fils, who needed the intervention of the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) to be reinstated on the ballot, is the sole candidate for the UNIFFAC (Central Africa) region, as Mustapha Ishola Raji (Liberia) for the WAFU A zone; Kurt Edwin-Simeon Okraku for the WAFU B zone, and Algeria’s Sadhi Walid for the UNAF (North Africa) zone.

The only female seat is also uncontested, with Congolese Bestine Kazadi the only candidate on the ballot.

https://guardian.ng/sport/football/pinnick-tipped-for-another-term-as-motsepe-retains-caf-seat-unopposed/