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African body backs Blatter foe Posted: Monday April 01, 2002 5:23 PMYAOUNDE (Reuters) -- Africa's ruling sports body threw its weight behind the continent's soccer chief Issa Hayatou on Monday in his campaign to unseat Switzerland's Sepp Blatter as head of world football's governing body FIFA. In a statement read over state radio in Hayatou's native Cameroon, the Supreme Council for Sports in Africa (SCSA) said the Confederation of African Football (CAF) chief's candidacy for the FIFA presidency was an honor to the continent. Blatter has come under fire in recent weeks over allegations of financial mismanagement at FIFA and vote-rigging by his supporters ahead of his 1998 election -- allegations he denies. FIFA's financial situation has been under scrutiny since the collapse last year of its long-term marketing agent ISL-ISM, and has been dogged by political in-fighting. "At a time when for some years FIFA's functioning has left something to be desired and fostered all sorts of concerns around the world, the Superior Council for Sports in Africa is convinced that only a personality of Mr. Issa Hayatou's caliber, with many years experience in managing world football affairs, could take the helm with confidence, skill and devotion." The SCSA said Hayatou's candidacy, announced in Cairo last month, was an honour to Africa and urged all Africans to back him in the election due to be held at the FIFA congress in Seoul on May 29 ahead of the World Cup finals starting the next day. Hayatou, the first African to stand for the FIFA presidency and the first to challenge an incumbent president for 28 years, says he has the support of almost all of Africa's national soccer associations and many of those in Europe. He has been banking on widespread backing from Africa and lists the major federations -- South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt -- among his supporters. Officials of the Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) also signed a statement on Saturday backing his campaign. Hayatou, 55, is among Blatter's fiercest critics and one of 13 executive committee members who forced him to agree to an internal audit of FIFA's finances last month. Blatter, who recently visited Ivory Coast and Senegal, will make a second trip to Africa when he travels to eight countries in five days from April 5-10 to open FIFA funded projects in Lesotho, Mozambique and Zambia. He will also pay flying visits to Angola, Botswana, Malawi, South Africa and Swaziland. The 66-year-old Swiss last week received further backing for his re-election campaign from Zambian Football Association president Evaristo Kasunga, who said the southern African country would vote for him at the Seoul congress in May. Zambia has now joined Liberia, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe as countries who are declaring for Blatter. Africa and Europe united against Blatter, Addo saysNAIROBI -- Farah Addo, who is vice president of the African Football Confederation (CAF), said on Monday that Africa and Europe would unite to remove Sepp Blatter from world soccer governing body FIFA's presidency. "Almost all African federations will vote for Issa Hayatou. The majority of European federations who know the ABC of things going on... in FIFA will support Hayatou," Addo told Reuters in an interview in Nairobi. "They will all vote for a clean, transparent, honest and qualified person for the FIFA presidency and that man is Issa Hayatou," Addo, who is also president of Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA), said. Addo is spearheading the campaign for the 55-year-old Cameroonian, who is also the president of CAF. Hayatou will run against incumbent Sepp Blatter of Switzerland in the May 29 election ahead of the World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan to become the first person in 28 years to challenge a sitting FIFA president. Addo said he alleged an attempt to buy his vote for $100,000 four years ago last month because the CAF general assembly vetoed his plan to reveal it and because Blatter promised to rule the world's soccer governing body only for one four-year term. Go public "Nine months after those things happened in Paris, I wrote to my confederation to inform them I wanted to go public about what happened in Paris but the general assembly vetoed me, saying time was not ripe for those revelations," Addo said. "But I couldn't keep quiet when Blatter announced that he was going for a second four-year term. I can't allow that to happen," he said. "When he said he would go for one term, I said whatever was bought was bought. He'll go away after four years," he said. "I am determined not to allow these things to happen again." Blatter has come under fire in recent weeks over allegations of financial mismanagement at FIFA and vote-rigging by his supporters ahead of the 1998 election, which he denies. FIFA's financial situation has been under scrutiny since the collapse last year of its long-term marketing agent ISL-ISMM, and has been dogged by political in-fighting. Hayatou, the first African to run for the FIFA presidency, is among Blatter's fiercest critics and one of the 13 executive committee members who forced him to agree to an internal audit of FIFA's finances earlier last month. Addo regretted Roger Milla's remark that it will be hard for many Africans to chose between Blatter and Hayatou in the FIFA poll. "That is a remark by a person whom nobody can understand. First of all he has no vote. There is no doubt that the Cameroonian federation will vote for Hayatou," Addo said. He said only Mauritania and Liberia have clearly stated that they will not support Hayatou. Sierra Leone, Zambia and Zimbabwe, he said, have denied reports linking them to an anti-Hayatou bloc. Milla, who is Hayatou's compatriot, told Reuters in Geneva on March 31 that Blatter has many friends in Africa who cannot all abandon him because a fellow African is contesting. Blatter has consistently denied any wrongdoing during his tenure at FIFA president.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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