Bhamjee challenges Africa confed. president

JOHANNESBURG, Oct 27 (Reuters) -- Issa Hayatou, president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), faces a challenge to his leadership for only the second time in his 14-year rule at elections in January, the organisation announced on Monday.

Ismail Bhamjee of Botswana, an executive committee member of world governing body FIFA, told reporters in March he would run against the Cameroonian and this was confirmed when CAF released the list of candidates for the January 22 elections in Tunis.

Bhamjee has been a member of the CAF executive committee since 1988, when Hayatou took over as president, and is a former close ally of the CAF president, who was challenged for the presidency for the first time in 2000.

Bhamjee, a businessman based in Gaborone, has been one of Africa's four members on FIFA's executive committee since 1998.

Both candidates have said they have secured the backing of a majority of the 52 countries who will vote in the CAF election.

Bhamjee said on Sunday he was confident of at least 30 votes after meeting African national associations at the FIFA Congress in Doha, Qatar last week.

Hayatou lost out on a bid for the FIFA presidency last year when more than half of Africa's 52 footballing countries voted for Sepp Blatter in Seoul, South Korea before the World Cup.

The defection was seen as a vote of no confidence in Hayatou, who has since instituted several plans for sweeping changes in the running of CAF.

But ex-referee Bhamjee believes African football needs a change of leadership after 16 years under Hayatou.

ABEDI PELE

The list of candidates also showed that former African Footballer of the Year Abedi Pele is to run for a place on CAF's executive committee.

The Ghanaian footballer, who won the European Cup with Marseille and was the first African to captain a Serie A side when he played at Torino, is to challenge incumbent Amos Adamu for the west African seat on the 12-member executive committee.

Abedi Pele, who runs a team in Ghana and is vice president of the country's Football Association, is the only player to win the African Footballer of the Year award three times in a row.

Tunisian Slim Aloulou, another of the four African members on the FIFA executive committee, is to lose his seat after his country failed to nominate him for another term.

Instead, candidates from Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Togo and Tunisia will contest the seat on the 24-member FIFA executive.

Africa holds elections for three of its four places on the FIFA committee, while the CAF president is automatically a FIFA vice president.

Leo Mugabe, the nephew of Zimbabwe's president, is to make a comeback bid by standing again for a place as a representative of southern Africa on the CAF executive committee.

Mugabe lost his seat two years ago when he garnered just four votes to his opponent's 46 at the CAF Congress in Mali. He has also since been removed as the head of the Zimbabwe Football Association.

The CAF Congress in Tunis takes place before the start of the African Nations Cup finals on January 24.

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