By Kgomotso Mokoena
Johannesburg – World governing football body FIFA on Tuesday announced that SA billionaire and mining magnate Patrice Motsepe was clear to contest for the CAF presidential elections.
This will come as a huge relief and a shot in the arm for SAFA who nominated the Mamelodi Sundowns boss to contest for the CAF presidency. SAFA are worried about the threat that could be posed by dirty tactics and underhand dealings in the run up to the CAF presidential elections on March 12 in Morocco.
“We kindly inform you that the Review Committee (FIFA) has declared you eligible for the position of CAF President and FIFA vice-president,” said FIFA chairman of the Review Committee Mukul Mudgaal via an e-mail addressed to Motsepe on Tuesday.
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Earlier this month, CAF announced via a statement that the Motsepe and Ahmed Yahya of Mauritania will have to undergo further integrity checks before their names will be allowed to appear on the ballot paper for the elections.
In the same statement, CAF confirmed that Jacques Anouma (Ivory Coast) and Augustin Senghor of Senegal were “authorised to appear on the list of candidates for the presidency”.
This has left a bitter taste in the mouths of the English-speaking block. CAF has for many years been dominated by the Francophone and north Africa regions.
“We will fight them if they come up with dirty tactics. Why only these two (Motsepe and Yahya)? Why is it that the other two are not subjected to these further tests? It’s surprising that for the first time we have a candidate from the Southern region that there are additional checks by the CAF ethics committee,” said a concerned SAFA official.
Motsepe has worked very hard in his lobbying campaign.
He has been to Egypt twice, Qatar and he met many leading officials of African football.
He also had lunch with CAF executive committee members in Cairo.
He also went to west Africa and visited officials and countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Conakry and then went back to Cameroon.
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