Cosafa back CAF’s Ahmad

02 Jun, 2019 - 00:06 0 Views

The Sunday Mail

Sports Reporter

SOUTHERN African countries have rallied the continent to throw their weight behind under pressure Confederation of African Football president Ahmad with the COSAFA president Philip Chiyangwa once again championing the cause for members to unite behind the Malagasy ahead of a crucial meeting in Paris, France on Tuesday.

Ahmad who ended Issa Hayatou’s 29-year-old hegemony in CAF has found himself under intense pressure from some groups within the continental body that have sought to topple him following the emergence of some serious cracks.

On Friday the former president of the Madagascar Football Association received the backing from the region that is fronted by the man who was his campaign manager when swept into power two years ago with Chiyangwa’s COSAFA throwing their weight behind him and urging the rest of the continent to follow suit.

Ahmad has been on a restructuring exercise of CAF and his reforms have met with some resistance which have culminated in some behind the scenes manoeuvres to depose him.

Chiyangwa confirmed the support for the CAF boss in a statement issued after the COSAFA executive meeting in Durban, South Africa on the sidelines of the on-going COSAFA Cup in the port city.

The former ZIFA president, a key fugue in continental football politics, noted the need for unity by African zones who will take advantage of the 69th FIFA Congress in France to converge for a CAF meeting.

“For some time the African Football Confederation and its president has been the subject of various character assassination attacks.

“These attacks whose stated objective is the removal of the president became more and more unhealthy for African Football.

“At the meeting of the COSAFA executive committee in Durban, South Africa on 29th May 2019, the members unanimously expressed their concern and called upon their membership to express their solidarity and support of the president of CAF in his much-needed mission to restructure our Confederation.

“A few weeks before the final phase of the inaugural 24-team CAN 2019 in Egypt COSAFA invites all football stakeholders to unite in support of CAF and its president for the development of African Football,’’ Chiyangwa said.

The vote of confidence by COSAFA on Ahmad, also puts paid to claims of a huge fall out between the continental football body’s boss and the biggest regional bloc under CAF.

A host of issues aimed at enhancing the governance and development of the African game have also been put on the table for discussion at the Zonal meeting where each bloc was also given a chance to suggest issues they needed CAF to tackle

“Discussion points at CAF Zonal Meeting, Paris 4th June 2019, Attendance by Zonal Unions at CAF General Assembly

 

Bi-annual meetings between CAF Secretariat and the Executive Directorate of the Zonal Unions

UEFA Assist Programme – Educational plans for 2019

Competitions – the way forward for Zonal Qualifiers U-20 Youth and U-17/U-20 Women

CAF Youth & Women’s Final tournaments – increased participation and equitable representation by Zonal

CAF/FIFA Forward support to Zonal

Decentralisation & empowering of Zonal Unions – CAF/FIFA Courses/Workshops,’’ CAF said in their circular.

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