With the FIFA Council seats up for grabs during the next CAF elections slated for March 12, 2025 in Cairo, Egypt, Nigeria’s Amaju Pinnick will be one of the 10 candidates to battle for the six tickets at stake.
Of the six tickets, one is reserved for women’s representatives from the continent on the 37-member FIFA Council. It is presently occupied by Isha Johansen of Sierra Leone who has been challenged by the duo of Lydia Nsekera of Burundi and Kanizat Ibrahim of the Comoros Island.
Pinnick will be seeking re-election for another four-year term on the FIFA Council where he has become a major voice from the continent, ThisDay reports.
Presently representing Africa as one of the six Vice Presidents on the FIFA Council is Patrice Motsepe, the South African billionaire businessman who is CAF President.
The former NFF President will battle nine other contestants that include; Hany Abou Rida (Egypt) who is seeking re-election; Fouzi Lekjaa (Morocco) is also seeking re-election; Yahia Ahmed (Mauritania); Souleiman Waberi (Djibouti);
Idriss Dialli (Cote d’Ivoire); Mathurin Chakus (Benin Republic); Augustine Senghor (Senegal); Djibrilla Pele Hamidou (Niger Republic); and Andrew Kamanga (Zambia).
The March 12 contests in Cairo will be very different from the past FIFA Council elections in Africa with the removal of languages in voting for FIFA Council members. This was a resolution from the most recent 46th CAF General Assembly in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The removal of language blocks brings an element of fairness and also increasing the level of competition from the nominations.
Previously, The Arab/Luso-Spanish speaking region has strong contenders like Abou Rida and Faouzi Lekjaa who will be seeking a second term.
But in his first official interview on the FIFA Council elections, Pinnick said at the weekend that he has nothing against throwing the contests open without regional encumbrances.
“It was a conventional decision to remove the bottleneck of ethnicity and allow the best five to represent Africa no matter where they come from. If the best five come from the Anglophone region, so be it. If they come from the Arab zone, that is alright. They are all representing Africa,” observed Pinnick who is also a CAF Executive Committee member.
Asked to clarify a statement in the media where he was quoted to have said that he was sure of re-election with no less than 18 votes from the COSAFA and CECAFA region, Pinnick insisted it was news to him as he did not grant any interview to any reporter.
“When I saw the publication that I have 18 votes , I just laughed. There are investigative journalists all over the continent and I think somebody looked at the elections and came out with that number. Even if I have 18 votes, I will not come out to say that I have 18 votes,” stressed Pinnick.
He however admitted that both COSAFA and CECAFA have a total of 26 votes and if the reporter was from that region, it may be from his investigation which has nothing to do with him.
