Caf Elections - Ahmad rises as Hayatou falls

He should have seen the writing on the wall. He should known it was a matter of time before fate would catch up with him.

The signs have been all around him for several years now, but the intoxicating effect of power can also cause temporary blindness to reality!

Issa Hayatou should have quit the stage of football administration when the ovation was still very loud and in his favour, but he did not, hence his fall on Thursday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, when a new chapter was opened in the story of African football administration - the giant was roundly trounced by a lilliputian.

I am neither his friend nor his fan, but I like him.

He may like me too, but only up to the point where my criticism of his longevity in office as president of the Confederation of African Football is not made public.

As soon as that happens, he immediately bares his fangs and strikes with the speed and ferocity of a viper. I tasted of his venom several years ago when I wrote an article in my weekly sports column asking him not to re-contest the Caf presidential elections after serving a fifth term in office.

Issa Hayatou did not take it lightly. He is unforgiving and never takes any prisoners. In the wake of his winning the elections that year my name was immediately expunged from the next list of the membership of the Players Committee of Caf. It has not been put back since then.

Since then he has re-contested the presidential elections two more times, won them both and probably has become the longest serving president of a football confederation in history.

That is Issa Hayatou, a man who understands power play and has deployed it effectively in the past to ‘perpetuate’ himself in office without any one brave enough to challenge him.

Anyone that dared was cut off the pipeline of Hayatou’s generosity - membership of a committee or sub-committee in Caf.

For decades that was Issa’s trump card, an unfailing strategy that keeps loyalists in check and enemies at bay.

http://www.supersport.com/football/blogs/segun-odegbami/Caf_Elections_Ahmad_rises_as_Hayatou_falls