Issa Hayatou Set to Run Unopposed for CAF Presidency

Issa Hayatou, current Confederation of African Football (CAF) president has been given a free run at staying in his position for a further four years following the news his rival was not allowed to run against him.

The news sets up Cameroon’s Hayatou to lengthen his tenure at the helm of African football to almost 30 years since his election to the post in 1988 but there is still a chance he may face a rival in the elections next year.

CAF have disallowed the candidacy of rival Jacques Anouma because he does not meet new criteria for presidential candidates but the Ivory Coast politician is expected to launch a legal bid to overturn the decision and be allowed to stand at the CAF Congress in Marrakech, Morocco, on March 10.

The 66-year-old Hayatou, anticipating Anouma’s bid, engineered a change in the organisation’s statutes to permit only voting members of its executive committee to run for the presidency.

The change was overwhelmingly approved at a special CAF Congress, arranged solely for the purpose of amending the rules, in the Seychelles in September.

Anouma is a member of CAF’s executive committee only because he serves as one of the continent’s representatives on the FIFA executive and he has no voting powers in CAF matters.