Whatever has a beginning surely must have an end. This truism encapsulated the defeat of Issa Hayatou as president of the Confederation of African Football, CAF on Thursday in Addis Ababa after 29 years in charge, losing to challenger Ahmad of Madagascar in a major shakeup for the sport on the continent.
The 70-year-old Hayatou had ruled African soccer since 1988 and was FIFA’s most senior vice president because of his status as the longest-serving executive at the world soccer body. He also lost that position Thursday, and his place on FIFA’s ruling council.
Underlining his complete control over CAF for three decades, Hayatou had only been challenged in a re-election campaign twice before, and he won both of those votes in landslides. He was re-elected unchallenged in 2013 after engineering rule changes that favored his candidacy.
Ahmad won 34-20 in the vote of Africa’s 54 member federations. He will become a FIFA vice president and join the council. Hayatou left the congress room in Addis Ababa when the result was announced without commenting.
“This is sweet victory,” said Ahmad, who was held aloft by officials when his victory was announced and then hugged people around him. “When you work hard for years and months and you succeed, that is great.”
Ahmad takes over on an initial four-year term, and has promised to modernize CAF and make it more transparent. His first job, he said earlier Thursday, would be to introduce a new code of ethics for the African football body. He has also pledged to extend ethics checks on African soccer officials.
Hayatou’s defeat marks the end of an era in African football.
